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May 1, 2008- May 31, 2008
Reception: May 8, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Robert O’Connor
NY Studio Gallery
511 W 25th StNY Studio Gallery is pleased to present THE WATERS ARE UNSAFE by video artist and painter Robert O’Connor. Inspired by junk-mail charity letters, O’Connor focuses on the burden of empathy. He states: “But how can I possibly respond? How can I, or anyone for that matter, assimilate this constant stream of despair (not only from my mailbox but from the myriad communication sources that permeate modern life)? I’m afraid I might drown, or worse, become numb and stop caring.”
With these thoughts in mind, O’Connor created a single channel video and paintings around the images of two figures - one naked, floating in a sea of blackness, and the other dressed and coming to the other’s aid. The video, with haunting audio by Matt Page, reveals a struggle that makes us question the position of the “victim”. Text from the charity letters, a warning sign from a polluted spring, and a lesson plan from a Red Cross training manual are layered into these images and direct us to the larger themes of vulnerability and the limitations of empathy that drive this work.
About Robert O’Connor
Robert O’Connor is a video artist and painter who lives and works in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. He is also a founding member of the artist collective “This Must Be The Place.” His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at the Jersey City Museum, the Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center in New York, and at the Sky Gallery in Osaka, Japan. He was a visiting artist at Chester College in New Hampshire this past fall and has taught at The Cooper Union and SUNY Rockland. He holds an MFA degree from Vermont College, a bachelors and masters degree in engineering from The Cooper Union and also studied at the Art Students League of New York and the National Academy of Design. He was the recipient of several awards including the Edward G. McDowell Travel Grant and the Levin/Lutz Merit Prize from Vermont College.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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