The 2010 Whitney Biennial had a large collection of video and New Media pieces as a part of the exhibit. One of these pieces was Marianne Vitale’s Patron piece. It consisted of a chair placed in front of a television on which a video of her shouting instructions to the audience. These instructions ranged from telling the people in the room to laugh at each other to telling them to find the best-looking person in the room and dance with them as well as to “imagine your feet soaking in gopher urine.”
There was not much to the video itself other then her commanding presence and her seemingly malicious tone. Yet the enjoyment of the piece came from watching people’s reaction to the video. Some people seemed to pretend it wasn’t there, others attempted to comply to her demands which resulted in some interesting scenarios as her demands vary between simple to absurd.
Patron was a attention-grabbing but doesn’t really stand alone without an audience which makes it more interesting as a video piece, for there is not always a group of people in front of it. Her monolog reflects that of older art manifestos calling into action those who hear it but at the same time she never asks for anything meaningful from her audience.
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