Drive In

Drive In-Blindspots and A Dead End, 1998
video installation
side view car mirrors, lights, light stands, photography, carpet, paint, video, sound

This is the second New York solo exhibition for Angie Eng who approaches video as a tonal language rather than high tech narrative in a sensory charged video installation on the human condition. A membership at AIR gallery granted to her by a fellowship will culminate in work which probes primitive human behavior against over sterilized modern life. With video, sound, a road of wall-to-wall carpet and side view car mirrors, Eng transforms the gallery into a hybrid of Drive-in theatre and suburban home.

The air engulfed with floral aerosol freshener combined with billowing sounds of windshield wipers serves as a foreboding backdrop to Eng’s psychological junction. Video shots of windshield wipers are layered with black gloved hands signing words evoking cruelty, aggression and self-destruction. Side view mirrors taken from old automobiles are illuminated to reveal snapshot transparencies of tract homes superimposed onto hand signs. It is through a subtle emotional twist which Eng uses to examine underlying human inclinations and the American consumer’s vicarious predisposition.

This project was funded in part by Location One, a Susan and Elihu Rose Fellowship, an ETC Presentation Grant which is supported by NYSCA and private contributions.