Over the last century, many artists and filmmakers have used silence as subject matter and medium, exploring it as symbol, phenomenon, memorial device, and oppressive force. Silence examines the ways twenty-nine artists invoke silence to shape space and consciousness, most after John Cage's 4'33" (1952). Among this carefully curated selection are Joseph Beuys's The Silence of Marcel Duchamp Is Overrated (1964) and works by several artists who matured in the 1960s and 70s, including Bruce Nauman and Marcel Broodthaers; documentation of Tehching Hsieh's One Year Performance 1978-79, in which the artist spent a year in a cage without speaking, reading, writing, or engaging with any media; and Andy Warhol's Electric Chair paintings. Other artists featured in the publication include Robert Rauschenberg and Ad Reinhardt, represented by white or black paintings; Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Maya Deren, Jennie C. Jones, Jacob Kirkegaard, Christian Marclay, Doris Salcedo, and Martin Wong; and intermedia artists Steve Roden and Steven Vitiello. Over forty full-color plates complement three thought-provoking essays and artist biographies.

Silence

Arts & Photography

Kamps, Toby

Seid, Steve

History & Criticism

The Menil Collection

Ant Farm 1968-1978

This richly illustrated book, created to accompany the traveling exhibition of the same name, provides a fascinating critical overview of Ant Farm, the radical architecture collective that brought us Cadillac Ranch, Media Burn, and The Eternal Frame. Established by several young renegade architects in 1968, Ant Farm was a collaborative art and design group eager to bring to its practice a revolutionary spirit more consistent with the times. Its vision encompassed creations for a nomadic lifestyle, including inflatable structures and radical environments that culminated in projects such as the organically appointed House of the Century and the unrealized aquatic edifice The Dolphin Embassy. Ant Farm 1968-1978 explores the sweeping career of this inspired and inspiring visionary collective as its architectural projects broadened to embrace a range of undertakings that challenged the visual architecture of image, icon, and power. Constance Lewallen provides an in-depth, anecdotally rich interview with founding members Chip Lord, Doug Michels, and Curtis Schreier. An essay by Michael Sorkin gives the multivalent cultural context for Ant Farm's radical architecture. Steve Seid takes a comprehensive look at Ant Farm's influential videotapes. Caroline Maniaque's "Searching for Energy" details the group's inflatable structures in relationship to contemporaneous architects working in a similar vein. The catalog also includes a substantial excerpt from Chip Lord's 1976 meditation on car culture, with a new epilogue; a graphically playful timeline recounting Ant Farm's essential art projects; and a rich montage of images and ephemera capturing the humor, originality, and prescience of this feisty enterprise. A joint publication with the Berkeley Art Museum

Lewallen, Constance

University of California Press

A detailed account of Ant Farm's 1975 Media Burn performance, a legendary act of consumerist critique This book examines the complex set of cultural references and art-making strategies informing Ant Farm's seminal 1975 performance Media Burn in which a customized Cadillac, dubbed the Phantom Dream Car, was driven through a wall of burning television sets. Originally conceived as a conceptual architectural practice, Ant Farm evolved into a full-service art collaborative, culminating in such notable works as House of the Century (1971-73), Cadillac Ranch (1974) and The Eternal Frame (1975). In Media Burn the artists flourished in a rich tumult of ideas that engaged contemporary media theory, an oddly complicated aesthetic spectacle, textual appropriation and an all-encompassing branding effort. Written by Steve Seid (Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive), and drawing upon a rich visual documentation, this book delves into the little-known critical backstory to this influential performance (and video work) involving a massive effort to mount a subversive critique of media hegemony while continually re-imagining the crux of the performance itself.

Media Burn: Ant Farm and the Making of an Image

Performing Arts

Inventory Press/RITE Editions

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Books by Seid, Steve