Authorless Content: The Whitney Biennial— Another Look

Closing in ten days, this year's Whitney Biennial offers Omer Fast's "The Casting" as its major highlight. In my mind, the issues engaged by this artwork connect to the way New Orleans is portrayed daily in popular news media. This work is about spin, and how bias in story telling says more about its producer than the supposed subject matter.

Especially in the year of a presidential election, Louisiana is unfortunately entertaining in its struggle, making it a prime emotional manipulator used in ads and spectacular news-gathering models. Mediated graphic reference of the Katrina disaster is frequent, and it is carefully crafted- often reflecting agendas that have little to do with people living in the Gulf Coast. Is whose favor is this regional history being co-opted?

Omer Fast's work asks many questions about authorship and the isolation of content. The subject matter in this artwork originates with an interview dialogue that is digested and recapitulated. Creating a meta-story of sorts, Fast develops this material to reveal how the story was constructed.

Physically, the space created by this installation separates origin and artifice. "The Casting" is a four-channel video displayed on two double-sided panels floating side-by-side inside the center of a darkened room. One pair of video panels portrays original interview footage with a US Army sergeant who recounts his experiences abroad at war in Iraq. The other side of these video panels shows a dramatized reenactment of these same events by actors and a camera crew. The audience surrounds the video projections as if they are on two opposing teams, and the installation is united by a singular sound track.

Audio in this piece carries the oral conversation between the army sergeant and the artist, but the mouths of actors don't move in Fast's dramatization. A rush of dislocation permeates the narrative's climax, as events on-screen hold visual logic, but are void of any causal sensibility. The audience's moments of suspended disbelief are exploited at the horrific points in each tale- as the artist subtly jump cuts, weaving together overlapping story arcs. The dialogue cycle of raw interview footage eventually breaks down and becomes a search for ultimate truths. Verbally negotiating this territory, Fast intentionally jumbles the delivery of information.

Modern media positioning similarly has the power to misguide its audience. Last month’s grandstand by John McCain in the Lower Ninth and the Ford Lincoln's commercial with Harry Connick Jr. are examples of maneuvering our aggravated sensations. Cues and segueways affect our understanding of content. Authorless stories and those serving as PR engines are truly frightening, especially with regard to Louisiana's future.