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You are here: Home / LACE / 1995-1999 / Gummi TV

Gummi TV

October 14 – November 29, 1998

Much has been written concerning the influence of Hollywood on and within the art world. As the focus of the art world extends an ever increasingly critical eye to Los Angeles, mass media — the city’s most lucrative and visible export — inversely expands its influence. The mass production of images and information is culturally charged, not only within this city but on television screens around the world. Olav Westphalen and Peter Friedl teamed up to examine and reinterpret the relationship between television, mass media, and art in a humorous and provocative installation entitled Gummi TV.

The exhibition Gummi TV was preceded by a week-long residency in May. During their residency, Friedl and Westphalen researched and developed components of the installation Gummi TV, particularly in the areas of video and design. The elements used to stage Project Presentation: Gummi TV, which included sculptural elements, diagrammatic drawings and video, were displayed at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions for the weekend of 9 May 1998.

The expanded scope of this project reflects the curatorial shift at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions toward research-oriented projects. It introduces the organization’s interest in a broadened perspective on the flexibility of exhibition programming, with the idea that the research itself can constitute a show.

For the installation in October 1998, the artists constructed an installation comprised of vivid color, painted walls, bright foam cushions in primary colors, studio lights, an inviting sound stage, and a full complement of audio and visual recording equipment that will together emphasize beauty, playfulness, and accessibility. As a sculptural installation, Gummi TV functioned as a lo-fi yet fully operating production studio to which viewers had access by appointment. In exchange for viewers’s free access to a camera and recording and editing equipment, the artists required only that viewers provide them with one copy of the finished product.

Friedl and Westphalen saw Gummi TV used as a site for on-camera interviews, discussions, and performance events. It was hard to predict what visitors would see when they visited the gallery, as they were lucky enough to catch any manner of live event being taped or edited when coming to view the large-scale sculptural installation. Naturally, then, through their actions viewers themselves became part of what is on display.

Implicit in this project is the idea of “studio” as a metaphor for “workshop.” The installation addressed the influence of television aesthetics on studio art practices and the relationship between an artist’s studio and a television studio, as both are a site for the production of images and information.

This installation, in its capacity and role as a production studio, has resulted in an archive of independently-produced video tapes, somewhat like Paper Tiger Television or the Video Data Bank. The difference is that rather than being subject to carefully determined curatorial mandates, this archive includes whatever is contributed to it via the use of the equipment in the artists’s installation. The archive is maintained by the artists and will be known as “Gummi TV.” Starting with this project at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, “Gummi TV” the archive will develop into an ever-growing video library of independent tapes produced via Gummi TV the installation, which is expected to travel.

The installation reflects the artists’ shared interest in the conventions of humor. One of Westphalen’s former day jobs was writing stand-up comedy for German television’s Gottschalks Hausparty, and much of his art work draws on this experience. Friedl recently mounted an exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels that invited viewers to don cartoon-like animal costumes as they meandered around the gallery. Together, these artists promise to bring a light touch to a serious exploration of art’s periodic infatuation with television.

With its residency, subsequent interactive installation, and promise of an ever-growing element that can be re-configured and re-presented with great flexibility, the expanded scope of this project reflects the curatorial shift at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions toward research-oriented projects and introduces the organization’s interest in a broadened perspective on the flexibility of exhibition programming to include performance, video, and other media not traditionally considered “exhibition friendly.”

Special support for this project came from the Institut fŸr Auslandsbeziehungen in Germany, the Austrian Bundeskanzleramt, the Austrian Cultural Institute, and the Villa Aurora Foundation for European-American Relations.

 

Gummi TV installation

Filed Under: 1995-1999, Exhibition, Installation, LACE, Performance, Video Tagged With: 1998, audio, discussion, drawing, Exhibition, Gummi TV, installation, Olav Westphalen, performance, Peter Friedl, resindency, sculptural installation, Sculpture, Video, workshop

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On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for On Saturday, August 2 from 2–7pm, join LACE for this year's Artists’ Film International (AFI'25) at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

This touring film program is collectively curated and presented by 16 international arts organizations and convened by Forma (@formaartsmedia). AFI’25 introduces the work of talented moving image artists to worldwide audiences, and will be live over 300 days, with exhibitions, screenings and public programs hosted across 4 continents.

LACE’s selection for AFI’25 is "Leymusoom Garden: New Sun" (2024) by Heesoo Kwon (@leymusoom). Kwon’s oneiric visual language and unique animation style allow her to create memoryscapes of personal and community liberation. The film rewrites mythical matrilineal histories through utopian and whimsical abstractions of time, space, and memory to ultimately bring forth healing and transformation. 

Admission is free! RSVP at the link in our bio.

Image caption:
Still from Heesoo Kwon, Leymusoom Garden: New Sun, 2024. Courtesy the artist
Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Join LACE for “Obsidian Reflections” happening Saturday, July 19, 2–5 PM at the Philosophical Research Society (@philosophical_research_society).

Curated by Selene Preciado and Andrea Acuña, this film program presents a selection of video works that integrate ancestral knowledge and indigenous storytelling, imagining futures where the past and present connect through the power of ruins and resilience. Followed by a musical performance with multimedia NeoCumbia artist El Keamo (@el_keamo).

Learn more and RSVP at the link in our bio!
We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Cu We are excited to announce LACE's 11th Emerging Curator! Meet Semaj Peltier (@horsebreath87) and pom*pom (@__pom____pom__), collaborators in a curatorial collective and experimental film archive organizing community-based events since 2022. For the Emerging Curator Program, Semaj Peltier and Pom Pom curate "No Loneliness Like This," a film and food event showcasing experimental films that traverse the many manifestations of state-sanctioned isolation.

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This year’s panel included Jheanelle Brown (@jheaneeeeeelle), faculty member at CalArts and Curator of Film at REDCAT; Carrie Chen (@carriechen01), artist, curator, and educator; and Heber Rodriguez (@hebereatschips), Coordinator for the City of Lancaster’s Parks, Recreation and Arts Department in the Arts and Museums Division. 

Read the full press release in our bio!
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This program was held at L.A. Dance Project (@ladanceproject) from May 16–17, 2025.

The online presentation of “ENDURANCE” is supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles (@culture_la). 

Photos by Angel Origgi (@angeloriggi).

Image captions in order:
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