Welty, Rachel Perry.

*1962 in Tokyo, Japan
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, Diploma 1999,

Fifth Year Certificate 2001
1984 Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, B.A.
1982-1983 Université de Paris (La Sorbonne), Paris, F

 

Exhibitions [Selection]:
2011 Rachel Perry Welty 24/7, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts
2010 Lost in My Life, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, New York
2010 Wish Lists and Wrong Numbers, (2-person show with Kelly Sherman)

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
2011 Group Exhibition, Dialogue, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine
2011 Group Exhibition, No Way, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
 

Karaoke Wrong Number

 

Date: 2010
Length: 05:52 min.
Format:  4:3
Specification: Colour, Sound

 

Similar to the aesthetics of a mug shot, a woman in a plain white t-shirt, simply-done hair and no make-up sits against a stark blue wall. She confronts the viewer with an austere and impersonal gaze. The eerie stillness of her body is suddenly interrupted by the click of an answering machine. Through a meticulous synchronicity of mimicry, exactly following the pauses for breath and for swallowing, the woman mimes to nine callers recorded on an answering machine, with their various agendas of apologizing, ordering food, trying to send a fax or requesting billing information.
No matter how perfectly the woman lip-synchs to the messages, the viewer becomes instantaneously aware of the incongruity: the nine voices, most of which are male, could not possibly belong to the woman on the screen. The artificial synchronicity of the voice and the body reveals an underlying fissure between personality and appearance. The viewer is forced to wonder about the woman's true identity. She could be a medium capable of channeling other people's spirits or an automaton, an intricate contrivance with no active intelligence of its own.
Artist Rachel Perry Welty takes on the cast of nine characters suggested to her by nine wrong-number voice messages recorded by her phone, commenting playfully on the issue of the construction of identity.

OC

 

Interview:

► 1. Your video has been chosen among over 1700 festival entries to participate in Videonale 13. How central is the video medium to your overall artistic production? Is it complimentary to other media you use or do you work exclusively with video?

 

I work in many different media: drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, performance, social media and video to name some. The idea comes first and then the media makes itself known and available to me.

 

► 2. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

 

My disparate practices are unified by an interest in the overlooked, in the everyday, and in the small moments that form the ballast for our lives. Themes of consumerism, suburbia, narcissism, information overload, language, systems, the fleeting nature of experience, the passage of time, humor, and ultimately, life and death emerge in the work.

 

► 3. What artists do you relate to or find significant for your own art-making?

 

The list is ever-growing…some artists who inspire me are: Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Gabriel Orozco, Agnes Martin, Arturo Herrera, Howard Hodgkins, Tom Friedman, John Baldessari, John Marin, Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, Nina Katchadourian, Christian Marclay, John Cage, and others.

 

► 4. Do you think the video medium can address social or political issues better than other art media?

 

I think it is up to the artist to make powerful work. Video is just another tool, such as a pencil or a palette knife.

 

► 5. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Which of the two positions is close to your own art-making philosophy?

 

In making art I am reflecting on what it means to be alive in this world, for myself and for others. If I’m honest, I hope that gets people thinking. That’s the transformative power of art as I see it.

 

► 6. How do you understand success in an art-making career?

 

See above.

 

► 7. What is the most difficult and the most rewarding thing about making art / being an artist?

 

The most difficult aspect of making art is reconciling the mythical respect held for artists with the social marginalization in our culture. The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I get to spend my time thinking about ideas and making things that are interesting to me.

 

► 8. What are your upcoming projects?

 

If I talk about them, then I am giving them life and I wouldn’t feel the need to make them.

 

► 9. What do you do when you don't make art?

 

I’m always thinking and working. Whether I’m making breakfast or a drawing, it’s all art to me.

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