January 5th-29th, 2012
2nd Thursday Reception: January 12th, 2012 from 6-9pm
Location: The Icebox & The Grey Area
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 12-6pm

End of Empire is a custom-built robotic dolly and track which projects a 14-minute video inspired by Andy Warhol’s 1964 film Empire. The robot’s camera arm, invented by Jones to enable the frames movement, projects a black-and-white video image of the Empire State building across the gallery walls and ceiling and then reverses back to its original position to eventually disappear from the sky. Warhol’s static shot situates the Empire State Building as an immutable icon within an era of seemingly endless growth and possibility. End of Empire repositions Warhol’s proposition within a contemporary context, by erasing the iconic building from the skyline. The work comments on the possibility of a declining American empire, re- appropriating the historic/iconic building as a symbol of loss rather than promise. Transforming the conventional viewing of a film as static object, the audience is forced to physically change positions in order to experience the film as a performative projection. The exhibition reflects on our shifting notions of permanence in the twenty-first century.



Artists’ Bio: Simone Jones and Lance Winn share a common interest in the mechanisms of reproduction and the impact they have on representation. Since 2003 they have worked collaboratively on kinetic/video projects that investigate the promise and the limitations of extending media. Their work focuses on the edges of the two-dimensional image and the desire to see beyond the limits of the frame. By creating programmable, moving video projectors they are able to make explicit the requirements of the projected image as it filters into space rather than onto a flat screen. In their work Jones and Winn ask the audience to piece together a whole and highly detailed mimesis of space that can both create a virtual marvel and expose the distortions created through reproductive technologies. Their work has been exhibited across North America.