We are living through an era of preposterous, almost inconceivable contradiction, a paradoxical world in which the most antithetical ideas and activities coexist in embarrassing proximity. This is a scientific and technological age that is characterized by the rapid growth of fanatical fundamentalism; an era of unimaginably horrific wars that seem to barely touch us; a moment when our planet is on the verge of a collapse that is totally ignored; and an age that has seen the massive redistribution of wealth, creating unimaginable poverty in the midst of an almost obscene abundance. Clearly, the only possible way these yawning chasms of paradox and bad faith can be bridged is with some really, really good PR.

It is in this context that Perry Hoberman presents Trusted Makes. The works in this series represent large cans (or small drums) of essential (if imaginary) consumer goods. Utilizing a tangible interface (that is, a physical interface that allows for direct manipulation of media), these objects exist in a state of continual flux. By projecting instead of printing the package design onto the product, the graphic elements of Trusted Makes are able to morph from one state to another, both under user control (as they are rotated) and on their own. This allows them to continually update and improve their packaging, making and retracting claims and promises.

Living as we do in an empire where we create our own reality, we clearly need packaging that can be continually updated to reflect that reality -- even as the underlying (substandard) merchandise remains unchanged. Each of these works represents some manifestation of the Ultimate Commodity; a product that makes sensational promises about its effectiveness, economy, and newness-- its sheer sexiness. Sadly, all these promises are made only to be broken. In an age where we'll buy anything with the right packaging, no matter how rancid, dangerous and distasteful, Trusted Makes fabricate the best case possible for whatever's currently in stock.

Perry Hoberman is an acclaimed media and installation artist whose work often focuses on the boundaries and battles between art and technology. Working with a variety of technologies, ranging from the utterly obsolete to the seasonably state-of-the-art, he has exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe. His installation "Timetable" was awarded the Grand Prix at the ICC Biennale '99 in Tokyo, and "Systems Maintenance" won a 1999 Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction. "Unexpected Obstacles", a retrospective survey of his work, was exhibited in 1998 at the ZKM Media Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany, and before that at Gallery Otso in Espoo, Finland. In 2002 he was both a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a Rockefeller Media Arts Fellow. Hoberman is represented by Postmasters Gallery in New York, where he has had numerous one-person exhibitions. Since 2003, Hoberman has lived in Los Angeles, where he is an Associate Research Professor in the Interactive Media Division at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.





Pop Bastard by Curtis Stage is an installation that is an exploration of sound and vision, which collides the worlds of contemporary music and art. Stage's work addresses the possibility that video/sound can be a seemingly endless archive of cultural and personal associations to be layered, re-mixed, and ripped apart by the viewer to create new "narratives". Stage's interest in communication, especially between the sexes, and the base level that "Pop" music has at it's core with the desire to connect people and reassure their lives (or not), underscores much of Pop Bastard. Derived from the Bastard Pop music movement, which takes one song, removes all vocal tracking, and replaces it with song lyrics from a completely different genre. This reinterpretation, plundering and rearranging to create a hybrid of sorts, is what interests Stage. In Pop Bastard, Stage creates a frenzy of imagery and sound that is at once alluring and dizzying.

Curtis Stage is a Los Angeles based artist working with New Media. For the last few years much of his work has revolved around relationships to the self and how we connect with each other in a culture of technological experience. We have wrapped music, television, cinema, and the Internet into the fabric of our lives and it has influenced our sense of time, place and identity.