Brooklyn artist inspires 'Internet art'
By Molly Gold, Staff Writer
June 4, 2008 | 8 p.m.
Picture this: On a trip to New York City, you are passing by the famous New York Stock Exchange, camera in one hand, subway map in the other. On the steps sits a man reciting the Antoine de Saint Exupéry novel, "The Little Prince."
If you give David Horvitz $250, he will do just that. If you give him $1000, he will buy as many copies of The Little Prince as possible and give them away to brokers leaving after a day of work.
David Horvitz, a 25-year-old artist originally from Los Angeles, resides in Brooklyn, New York—a mecca for the contemporary artist. He features a host of far-fetched “things for sale” (both intangible and tangible “things”) on his personal Web site, davidhorvitz.com, which has created considerable buzz in the blogosphere. He is well traveled, professionally trained in photography (although in his recent projects he prefers a point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot over a DSLR because, he says, it goes well with documentary photography) and wildly imaginative: all characteristics that influence the ideas behind his unique Web site and projects.
Horvitz aims to separate and free himself from traditional art and clichés, resulting in a soulful art more reliant on the moment and gesture than the product. His latest project, “To a Sunset in Palos Verdes,” exhibited at the siteLA gallery from April 19 to May 3, is a good example of just that as Horvitz simultaneously uses his photographic talents and modifies a cliché.
“The show is about sunsets that happen the same day as the exhibition day,” Horvitz explained. “I leave the gallery every day and get on a bus to Palos Verdes from LA, watch the sunset, photograph it and then return on the bus to set the photos up for the exhibition that day.” This allows Horvitz’s exhibition to change daily, making the photographs symbolic and harboring more meaning—and context—than an overdone, formulaic collection of sunset portraits. It is the closest thing to actually displaying the sunsets as they happen.
His Web site, a disorganized but charming variety of pages with links to his blog, various writings, photographs, graphics and projects, can be viewed as art. Yet, keeping in mind that art is naturally subjective, why would one make this grand assertion about a Web site with such a (seemingly) simple principle?
One is paying for Horvitz's services, akin to how a theater fan pays for an actor’s performance in a play. He is a man with a simple message, a performance artist without a stage, creating his own livelihood, which he wishes to share with others. His Web site and projects are unique in their pursuits because not only does the buyer usually receive a tangible piece of art (often a photograph), but also they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are essentially contributing and a part of his experience. His art reminds us that the value of art, or anything with inherent worth for that matter, is relative.
His work bears resemblance to that of Francis Alÿs, a Mexican artist best known for his politically driven concept art, particularly a project where he retraced a green line placed on a map that indicated the separation of Israeli and Palestinian territory in Jerusalem. Instead of simply drawing a map, Alÿs took a green paint can to Jerusalem and paved the way through the streets. Like any of Horvitz's projects, the simplistic nature of Alÿs' concept does not diminish the message.
“David Horvitz is creating his own style of art,” said Susannah Goya-Pack, a Horvitz fan from Jersey City, New Jersey. “It is postmodern and aware of its existence as art with a nod to pop and performance art but with a human touch.” The “human touch” Goya-Pack refers to is just what attracts Horvitz enthusiasts to his work.
Horvitz acknowledges the confusion some skeptics may experience when they hear about his projects. “It’s sort of hard to explain to people. [A friend] will be like ‘what are you doing right now?’ and [I] say, ‘I’m in LA because I’m watching a cat…that someone paid me to watch.’ ‘Oh they’re paying you to watch their cat?’ ‘No someone paid me to watch someone else’s cat and photograph it.’”
Horvitz refers to the sold project where a buyer paid Horvitz to fly to Los Angeles and take care of his friends’ cat, “Centerfold,” for 20 days. The payoff? Horvitz mails the buyer a photograph he takes of the cat each day he is there.
His sale items range in price and quirkiness. Some of his “things for sale” can be pricey (the most expensive “thing” being a paid trip for Horvitz to the island of St. Helena in exchange for a single picture of the sky he will take once he gets there). He also offers inexpensive things as well, the most popular option being a $1 deal where he will sit in silence and think about the purchaser for a minute, sending an e-mail when the minute starts and ends.
“It’s my favorite, but it’s kind of absurd,” Horvitz says of the $1 project. “‘Cause I’m thinking about someone that I don’t really know anything about. I just know their name. So I have to just sit down and think about this name for a minute and it becomes really meditative. It’s kind of nice.”
Horvitz also offers a free service, a project with the self-explanatory title, “I Will Send You A Photograph of the Sky for Every Day in 2008”. The project also has a paid alternative where he will mail you prints daily. For more information on this service, click here.
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