Alex Bag

Broadcast between 1994 and 1997, this work spans three years and more than 50 hours of footage. While it figures into a rich tradition of artists using television against itself—bookended by figures from Andy Warhol and Jaime Davidovich to Ryan Trecartin—a broadcast of this scope by artists remains unprecedented. In this installment of Hyundai Card Video Views, we’re presenting 60-plus minutes of a “super-edit” intended to distill the essence of this epic project.

Broadcast between 1994 and 1997, this work spans three years and more than 50 hours of footage. While it figures into a rich tradition of artists using television against itself—bookended by figures from Andy Warhol and Jaime Davidovich to Ryan Trecartin—a broadcast of this scope by artists remains unprecedented. In this installment of Hyundai Card Video Views, we’re presenting 60-plus minutes of a “super-edit” intended to distill the essence of this epic project.

Originally projected in the interior of a customized Dodge at the 2001 Armory Show in New York, The Van features Bag as three young female artists riding in the back of a van, en route to the Armory Show. Their gallerist Leroy, dressed as a pimp, is the driver of the van; he promises them major recognition and designer handbags. Fox, Honey and Fiona compete for Leroy's favor by detailing the inane—but not utterly improbable—pieces they're showing at the art fair, and the sexy clothes they'll wear to the opening. The name-dropping and catty glances escalate as each woman contends that she, more than the others, needs to use the van for her installation near the gallery's booth. As Bag derides the wish lists of the art-star hopefuls (the Turner Prize, the cover of ArtForum, Rosalind Krauss' critical attention, "more product endorsement"), she implicates the contemporary art world—herself included—in a bacchanal of greed.

Alex Bag's mock news report on a fictional New York street-performance troupe. Faux fans and critics (including Rudy Giuliani) wax poetic on the Fancy Pantz gang, described as "experimental modern dance for the ages."

Untitled Fall '95 takes the form of a wryly humorous video diary of an art school student (sharply played by Bag) in the midst of “finding herself” in New York City. We can see the diarist physically and emotionally evolving throughout her eight semesters in the Big Apple. Such onscreen “confessionals” stem from the first major example of reality TV, The Real World. Interspersed throughout are commercial-like vignettes that further critique what it’s like to live in the world today. In Untitled Fall '95, Bag displays a profound self-awareness that evokes empathy on behalf of the viewer, despite her work’s glaring artificiality.

Untitled Fall '95 takes the form of a wryly humorous video diary of an art school student (sharply played by Bag) in the midst of “finding herself” in New York City. We can see the diarist physically and emotionally evolving throughout her eight semesters in the Big Apple. Such onscreen “confessionals” stem from the first major example of reality TV, The Real World. Interspersed throughout are commercial-like vignettes that further critique what it’s like to live in the world today. In Untitled Fall '95, Bag displays a profound self-awareness that evokes empathy on behalf of the viewer, despite her work’s glaring artificiality.

Untitled Fall '95 takes the form of a wryly humorous video diary of an art school student (sharply played by Bag) in the midst of “finding herself” in New York City. We can see the diarist physically and emotionally evolving throughout her eight semesters in the Big Apple. Such onscreen “confessionals” stem from the first major example of reality TV, The Real World. Interspersed throughout are commercial-like vignettes that further critique what it’s like to live in the world today. In Untitled Fall '95, Bag displays a profound self-awareness that evokes empathy on behalf of the viewer, despite her work’s glaring artificiality.