Dara Friedman
SHOOTING GALLERY
Dara Friedman, Shooting Gallery, performance in the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION on December 18th, 2009
On the night of December 18th 2009 the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION in Düsseldorf became the stage for Shooting Gallery, a performance by Dara Friedman in which visitors were invited to walk an orange carpet and photographers were invited to photograph them.
Unsuspecting spectators were led to a large gallery laid out with a long orange carpet delineating a direct path from entrance to exit. Once the doors closed behind them, the only way out for the visitor was through the gauntlet of photographers shouting their names and firing shots and compliments. Some chose to pose, some fled, a handful wallowed, one cried, yet others grinned and bore it, most basked in the glow. The orange path led into the light- into the bright unknown and the exit.
In fact there were no spectators, per se. Everyone became a participant in the performance. The spectators were the show. Any potential wallflowers trying to evade the spotlight and move towards the periphery became part of the cat calling photographers instead, sucked into the momentum of the pack.
The project plays upon the conflicting circumstances of fear of the unknown, bright lights, loud noises, and at the same time an attraction to light and the future. Friedman envisions this performance as a fleeting encounter, a flash of lightning- showing a moment clearly. A moment in which we summon our powers of presentness, of being the light at which moths fly, and the melting that occurs in the heat of this moment.
Shooting Gallery proposes a situation of turning to face a fear as the way to pass through it. Chin up, tits out, come what may. As the door shuts behind them, the performers are forced to face the music, to gamely put their best face forward.
Participating photographers: Laurenz Berges, Lars Beuse, Christoph Beyer, Joan Braun, Sarah Bruckner, Henning Fehr, Dara Friedman, Stefan Hostettler, Andreas Gursky, Mark Handforth, Dora Moira Hansen, Stefan Hoderlein, Anna K.E., Luka Koraschwili, Sandro Koraschwili, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Achim Kukulies, Yun Lee, Tammo Lünemann, Kaoli Mashio, Burkhard Maus, Klaus Mettig, Ward Ivan Rafik, Sebastian Riemer, Carolina Redondo, Thomas Ruff, Josef Schultz, Liv Schwenk, Katharina Sieverding, Orson Sieverding, Georgi Stanchev, Melanie Stegemanns, Dorothea Stiegemann, Christine Thon, Karsten Thormaehlen, Sabine Voltz, Victoria Wald.
DARA FRIEDMAN - www.shootinggallery.cc - is online now! A selection of the photo collages will be on view in the lounge of the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION from Saturday, February 27th, 2010.