Marc Horowitz, a self-described “maximalist,” has permeated American culture with his socially-oriented projects and playful enterprises. His work includes video, drawing, cultural experiments, and the dynamic use of networks like twitter and youtube. In 2004, while working as a photo assistant for Crate & Barrel, Horowitz wrote “Dinner w/ Marc 510-872-7326″ on a dry erase board that was included in their fall catalog. He received over 30,000 requests for dinner dates, and began driving around the country to dine with people. The National Dinner Tour garnered attention from numerous press outlets; Horowitz appeared on The Today Show and was named one of People Magazine’s 50 Hottest Bachelors in June 2005.

In 2009, Horowitz embarked on The Marc Horowitz Signature Series, for which he signed his name on a map of the United States and drove that route, stopping at 19 towns along the way. He documented these adventures in short webisodes. In Nampa, Idaho, Horowitz established the first Anonymous Semi-Nudist Colony (complete with complimentary jean shorts and ski masks). In Battle Mountain, Nevada, he pitched an idea to local politicians that involved changing the name of the town to something less pugnacious, suggesting the gentler alternative “Tender Pie Hill.” Other notable projects include Google Maps Road Trip and Talkshow 247.

In December 2009, Horowitz participated in a panel discussion as part of Art Basel Miami Beach’s Video Art Program, “Video Art and Mainstream Distribution,” curated by New York’s Creative Time. Short films from The Marc Horowitz Signature Series were shown prior to the discussion. DailyServing’s Rebekah Drysdale was able to ask him a few questions about his past projects and future pursuits during an interview conducted over Skype in December.

Rebekah Drysdale:  At your discussion in Miami, you mentioned you studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute after leaving the business world. Do you think the tools you are using now, such as YouTube and Google maps, are the new media for this generation of artists?

Marc Horowitz: I think so. Painting and drawing will never die, obviously, but with the advent of the internet and the accessibility of video and broadcasting, I think that there is going to be such an insurgence of artists using these media.

RD: Your work engages the public, but seems very personal as well. What is the most influential encounter you have had in the making of your films?

MH: Omigod, there are so many of them!

RD: Can you pick one or two?

MH: The most memorable project is probably one you have never seen before. It was one I did while at the Art Institute, called Free Ideas. I went down to the corner of Market and Powell streets in San Francisco, where they turn the cable car. There are all kinds of tourists and homeless people there, the Seven Galaxies guy, preaching about the end of the world, religious people, preaching about God, and then there was me. I had two blank white sandwich boards that I made. I was handing out blank sheets of paper saying “free ideas.” People were confused. Most of the business people didn’t want to deal with me. One guy came up to me and said I was doing God’s work, for whatever reason. Several tourists thought that I was always there and wanted to have their pictures taken with me. Homeless people wanted me to write letters to their family members, so we would, and when we were done, they wouldn’t have their address. Kids wanted to have paper airplane throwing contests. I honestly think that project was what got me started in most everything I’m doing now.

RD: How did Free Ideas influence your later works?

MH: It was just taking such a simple idea as a blank sheet of paper and putting yourself out there in the world with that one element and then seeing what happens. I think that notion informed a lot of my projects after that. The Dinner Tour is the simple idea of dinner, at its least common denominator. Driving your signature across the United States is just a signature, something we use everyday. The Google Maps Road Trip was me and my friend wanting to take a simple road trip together, but not having the time or money, so we had to do it virtually.

RD: Tell me more about the experience and execution of the Google Maps Road Trip.

MH: The Google Maps Road Trip was a fascinating way of seeing America. It was also a really great way to get to know Peter (Baldes). In 2003, he e-mailed me saying I should have a blog. I had no idea who he was and why he was contacting me. Nevertheless, I immediately called him up because he put his phone number in the e-mail. We talked for a bit and he seemed nice enough, so we loosely kept in touch. I didn’t actually meet Peter in person until last year at a friend’s wedding. So all in all, we had only spent about twelve hours together in-real-life before we executed GMRT, and then we shared 40+ hours together “driving” across the country virtually. For me, it was like the Dinner Tour, except I got to know a single person, Peter, much more in depth.

The technical aspects of the project get a little complicated, but basically we left my house in LA and began driving together to Pete’s place in Richmond exclusively on Google Maps. For nine straight days, we “virtually drove” across the country by zooming in all the way on Google Maps and continuously pressing the Google Maps arrow keys eastward. We broadcast the entire experience live on googlemapsroadtrip.com. This meant that folks were able to not only see and hear us as we traveled, but also join us in a real-time chat room. Just think of it as an invitation for someone to hop in the backseat and ride along with us for part of the adventure.

RD: It sounds like your interaction with Peter during the Google Maps Road Trip was similar to what travel buddies may experience on a real cross country road trip. Do you think virtual travel will become more popular?

MH: Google Maps Road Trip is very lo-fi and basic. I would love to see it be implemented in schools. You could have an American fourth grade class travel around Europe, and (time zones permitting) they could travel with European students. They could go back and forth and talk about the things that are local to them. With the accessibility of Flickr photos, YouTube, and Panoramio (Google’s photo program), you can see all kinds of stuff you wouldn’t otherwise see. You can even bring up peoples’ live broadcasts while you are traveling. So, yeah I definitely think it is the start of something.

RD: In terms of your creative process, it seems that projects like The National Dinner Tour or the Marc Horowitz Signature Series would require much more planning than something live like the virtual road trip. Do you prefer to work with a plan or broadcast live?

MH: The Dinner Tour involved a serious amount of logistical planning more than anything else. Getting places on time, setting up dinner dates, etc. And I had no help. It was just a one man army. But that was a not-for-broadcast type of project. It was more experiential. Then I did the Signature Series, which was highly planned. A lot of it was written. We had to have all of the props, the locations secured, etc. It was a different way of working for me, but I really enjoyed it. Through all of the planning, there was still a lot of room for chance because we were doing the project in public, and in that way it felt very improvisational, like my previous works.

After that, I did Talkshow 247, where I broadcast myself live for three months, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on talkshow247.com. This project about destroyed me. There was always a live audience chatting away, commenting on my every action. It made me feel like I constantly had to be entertaining an audience that wasn’t even physically there. I really just wanted to live my life, but it became addictive to look at the chat and see what the audience was saying, and then do things to make my life more exciting. I didn’t really like that. So, to answer the question, I would much rather do some more planned out projects in the future, like the Signature Series. That is the direction I want to head with these projects.

RD: What type of work do you show in galleries?

MH:  I had some shows in Europe that were mostly drawings and sculptures because it is really hard to sell video art. It’s almost impossible. At some point, you have to make a product if you want to make a living as an artist, which is weird, you know? I did a show in Italy, called More Better. In it, I had made a drawing on how to make a helicopter out of a disassembled brick house and GMC truck. Really futile stuff, like a remote control bearskin rug. I made a suit of armor out of kids’ shin guards that is designed for people with a fear of sharp objects who are on a budget. Also included was The Tragedy Car Series, drawings of cars dedicated to terrible moments in history. For example, The Titanic Car.  The drawings are interesting to me because I can really go way far out there, without actually having to execute these proposals. For a show I had at Nuke Gallery in Paris, I did a series called At Least You Don’t Have it This Bad. One of the drawings is a guy with circular saws for hands, and he’s trying to eat chicken McNuggets. That stuff is more fantasy-based. It’s really one big joke, they’re one liners. I like that.

RD: What are you working on now?

MH: I’m about to launch a new project called The Advice of Strangers. I’ve been working on it for about a year, but haven’t told anyone about it yet. Basically folks will be able to vote online on all my life decisions, small to large. Should I comfort the girl across from me who is crying? Do I tell my mom she should work out? Should I eat the noodle that fell on the floor that my roommate jokingly offered me? Should I start looking for a new place to live cause my landlord is an asshole? Do I move in with my girlfriend? Each decision will have a time constraint depending on the magnitude of the choice. And when the poll closes, I’ll post photo and/or video documentation of what happened as a result of the poll so people can see how their vote has effected my life.

The website for the project is www.theadviceofstrangers.com. If you are interested in participating, please check the site for the launch date.

RD: Your work certainly has a refreshingly witty appeal. Is there one last thing you would like DailyServing readers to know about you or your practice?

MH: A big component of my work is my blog, www.ineedtostopsoon.com. I am always posting fresh stuff there. Another thing that I am really into is Twitter. I’m so addicted to it. I’m using it as sort of a diary! You can follow me at www.twitter.com/marchorowitz.

LIKENESS is the current group exhibition at the Mattress Factory Museum of Installation Art that examines human depiction during a post-Warholian era in which new technology has played an influential role. It includes the work of artists Jim Campbell, Paul DeMarinis, Jonn Herschend, Nikki Lee, Joseph Mannino, Greta Pratt and Tony Oursler. Elaine A. King, who is a freelance critic and curator as well as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University teaching Art History/Theory/Museum Studies, has guest-curated the exhibition.

Among the offerings is Paul DeMarinis’ new work, Dust.  With this work DeMarinis explores facial similarities, pairs of faces, and the abstraction of images into the dust. DeMarinis presents a fragment of this collection of likeness-pairs, scanned sequentially into the light-memory of phosphorescent powder. After a few minutes of exposure to the projected image, the powder retains a faint green image of the two faces on its surface, something akin to the ‘latent image’ of photographic film or the veil of memory. Unlike photographic film, though, the image starts to distort. Propelled by low frequency sound vibrations, the powder starts to flow and dance, first distorting the faces and erasing their likeness, then distorting them into patterns of abstract light in motion, with form and beauty all its own.

On the other end of the spectrum is Jonn Herschend’s many-sided conceptual, Self Portrait as a PowerPoint Proposal for an Amusement Park Ride.  The installation is characterized by a strong sense of narrative, not strictly limited to straightforward vignettes or mimetic representation. In his complex self-portrait one finds a narrative that resembles fantasy, role-playing, fiction and a touch of reality. Herschend’s choice of subjects and materials contribute to the kind of story he opts to tell and show his audience.

Courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo/ The Quiet in the Land, Laos/ the Artist

The Mizuma Art Gallery of Tokyo is showcasing artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s ongoing project Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 at Art Positions in Art Basel Miami Beach 2009.  This complex and meaningful project is a statement on the current condition of the refugee and, in Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s words, a ‘reflection and offering to the refugees whose lives are to run or to perish’.  As an artist with resources and a passport, Nguyen-Hatsushiba is part of the global elite, whose mobility effortlessly enables movement across national borders.  Through his step and sustained mental and physical discipline the artist physically embodies the desire and struggle of the powerless refugee that is on the move and longs, as the artist notes, ‘to be on “the other side” instead.’

The work is defined not only by Nguyen-Hatsushiba’s act of running, but by the deliberately plotted path the artist takes which crosses any national and ethnic divisions.  In his effort to run 12,756.3 miles – equivalent to the most direct circumference of the earth – Nguyen-Hatsushiba chooses urban areas with a history of forced displacement.  The artist has completed runs in places such as Geneva, Tokyo, Singapore, Manchester and Ho Chi Minh City.  The paths taken in each of these places forms a  shape – often organic – with metaphorical meaning.

Courtesy: Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo/ The Quiet in the Land, Laos/ the Artist.

On view in the Mizuma Art Gallery booth at Art Basel Miami Beach is video footage from a selection of Nguyen-Hatsushibi’s runs paired with ‘earth drawings’ or ‘running drawings’ which map his route from an aerial perspective.  These ‘drawings’ are actually lambda prints created by transposing GPS data of his movements onto aerial photographs of each of the cities chosen for the project.  These GPS transfer prints reveal the symbolic shapes formed by the path of his runs.

Nguyen-Hatsushibi’s film The Ground, the Root, and the Air:  The Passing of the Bodhi Tree from 2004-2007 (single channel video, 14 min, 30 sec) is also on view.  This video explores globalization and resulting loss of tradition in Luang Prabang, Laos.  The image of the runner, an empty stadium, the lantern, the Mekong River and the Bodhi tree serve as symbols of this economic change – as well as hope for the future.

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba has shown internationally and can be found in important collections such as the Centre Pompidou and the Whitney Museum of American Art.  He received his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art.  Nguyen-Hatsushiba currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City.  His current project for Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 is set in Chicago.

Art Basel Miami Beach ends 6 December 2009.

Massimo Guerrera (2009) Meeting, Ink, pencil and acrylic on paper, 54" x 44"

After six years of operation, the artist-run Crawl Space Gallery in Seattle has decided to close its doors and end their impressive programming of exhibitions, residencies, public forums, publications, and experimental projects. The gallery is currently presenting Stranger Circumstances as their final exhibition. The show features Crawl Space artist in residency, Massimo Guerrera as well as artists Alana Riley, Ron Tran with performances during the opening by the Seattle-based artist collective PDL, featuring Jason Puccinelli, Jed Dunkerley and Greg Lundgren.

Alana Riley (2004) Stephan from the series Support System, C-print

As the press release mentions, “Stranger Circumstances, brings together artists who devise strategies to connect with people they would otherwise never encounter.” Resident artist Massimo Guerrera explores the methods in which people communicate using language, meditation, exertion and sharing by collaborating with strangers to create artworks through a variety of media. During his time at Crawl Space, the artist collaborated with a dozen participates to create what he calls “a living installation.”  Alana Riley documents short performative interactions with strangers. Her exhibited works involve the artist asking participants to either lie on top of her, placing their full body weight as they see fit, or allow her to carry them piggie-back throughout their workspace. Ron Tran documents strangers within close range to observe particular gestures and interactions. Whether through collaboration, perforative acts or documentation, each artist is using the uncontrolled actions of strangers as a cornerstone of their conceptual practice.

Stranger Circumstances is curated by Jennifer Campbell and will be on view through November 29th.

While contemporary technology has brought forth droves of artists and amateurs alike using digital means to create a photograph, Cassandra C Jones explores digital media without adding to a world over saturated with images. In her current solo show titled Send Me a Link, with Baer Ridgway Exhibitions in San Francisco, Jones recycles images found through internet research and recontextualizes them through still and animated digital collage, creating a sense of motion and depth through static imagery. By incorporating images that are repeatedly used in amateur and stock photography, Jones redefines the viewer’s relationship to the appropriated photo and creates a new understanding of the world’s bond to the ubiquitous image.

In this body of work, Jones constructs new assembled images from photos which would be considered cliche or mundane, due to the mass quantities existing in modern resources. For example, in Disco Girl and Car Fire, Jones demonstrates how the viewer is already linked to the visual symbols within each video. The appropriated images create new photos and videos without any direct manipulation, redefining the nature of collage through contemporary digital means. In the Lightning Drawings, Jones digitally overlays images of lightning strikes to create drawings, connecting the tools of drawing and photography. Similarly, Swarm and Iris expose the multiplicity in modern imagery through single figures being reconstructed to overlap creating pattern and depth. Each of these images allow the viewer to consider the individuality and multiplicity of the subject matter, revealing the repetitive and over saturated qualities of the modern photograph. The exhibition, Send Me a Link, not only demonstrates how easily photos and videos are shared socially through modern technology, but also gives a context for how we relate to these images in our daily lives.

Cassandra C Jones received her BFA from California College of the Arts in San Francisco and received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. Since, Jones has shown with Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York, the Northwest Film Center in Portland, Oregon, and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Collette Blanchard Gallery, a relatively new space on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, recently opened an exhibition of new photographic prints by Los Angeles-based artist Sean Higgins. The exhibition, titled Difficulties with Interplanetary Travel, features eleven digitally altered images of different terrain, some celestial and some worldly, all of which construct a new unidentifiable reality. All Each image begins as documentation of an actual event or location, either taken from the artist or sourced from online archives. Higgins then begins a meticulous process of altering the image, bringing it to state that is positioned directly between science fiction and reality, a state that is found all too often in contemporary life. The images, which are presented in a square format just shy of four-foot, marry a sense of mystery with the familiar, luring the viewer in while opening up an endless array of questions centered on image authenticity.

Higgins recently completed an exhibition of similar prints with Ambach and Rice in Seattle and has also exhibited with LA Louver Gallery and Sixspace in Los Angeles. His current exhibition with Collette Blanchard was reviewed by the Danish publication, The Copenhagen Voice. Difficulties with Interplanetary Travel will be on view through July 31th.

Currently on view at Primo Marella Gallery in Milan, Singing Stars is a solo exhibition dedicated to young Chinese artist Gao Yu. Exhibiting outside of Asia for the first time, Gao Yu introduces us to a series of mixed-media works that represent some of the successful contemporary art from super modern China. 28-year-old Gao Yu exploits a cartoon-like imagery, and thus confirms the challenge brought by animation as an autonomous art form. He draws on ideas and forms from pop and teenage culture, comics, and fiction, offering a vivacious and at the same time bizarre reinterpretation of traditional Chinese icons. The artist’s characters–his favorite apparently being the panda and the lunar rabbit–inhabit a surreal, almost psychedelic place which is rendered through the application of distinct, and often resonant, acrylic colors. The works are indeed playful, vibrant and beautifully cheeky, but sometimes there is also a disturbing and grotesquely sinister halo to the innocent looking cartoon figures. It is precisely this combination of innocence and wickedness that takes the viewers to the realm of Japanese comic and animation–manga and anime–which Gao Yu obviously riffs on. And, as manga and anime inspired works from Japan have affirmed themselves in mainstream contemporary art–with Yoshitomo Nara, “pop art star” Takashi Murakami, but also Kaikai Kiki’s Chiho Aoshima and Aya Takano among others–Gao Yu has everything he needs to remain a top representative of the Chinese art circuit.

Born in Guizohou, China, in 1981, and currently living and working in Chongqing, Gao Yu graduated from Sichuan Fine Art Institute in 2003. With Chen Ke, Zhang Hui, Wei Jia, Han Yajuan, and Feng Zhengquan, Gao Yu is one of the most important members of the “cartoon generation”, a group of young artists who debuted with a show titled “A Cartoon Generation”, held in Beijing in 2005, and who are associated with the dynamic contemporary art scene of China.

Singing Stars will be on view at Primo Marella Gallery from April 4th 2009-May 23rd 2009.