Watch Now: Liz Magic Laser's ‘Prototype for Convulsive States’

Tickets to Frieze New York

Liz Magic Laser: Prototype for Convulsive States is selected by New York-based curator and writer Lola Kramer, as part of the 2023 Frieze Projects program.

At Frieze New York, Laser will premiere a single-channel mirrored monitor prototype from her newly commissioned exhibition at Pioneer Works, which will open in September 2023.

A keen observer and astute interpreter of power and its forms, Liz Magic Laser (b.1981, New York) has spent the last two decades experimenting with how the aesthetics of performance impact our psychology and politics. Her multimedia practice includes video and performance as well as sculpture and installation, adopting forms such as presidential speeches, TED Talks, and nightly news broadcasts.

Exploring themes of the shaking body as a symptom of sickness and a healing strategy and spanning historical and present-day incidents of individual and mass hysteria, Prototype for Convulsive States riffs on the "smart mirror" virtual fitness coach popularized during the pandemic.

Laser's prototype invites viewers to move by superimposing their reflections onto the vibrating bodies of therapeutic practitioners such as dancer/healer Cori Kresge, somatic acting technique professor Erica Fae, sculptor/tai chi teacher Fabrice Brunet, and dancer/Kundalini yogi Reuel Crunk Rogers. The prototype also incorporates sound design by Jared Arnold with integrated music by GOBBY, among other solfeggio frequencies reputed to heal via electromagnetic tones.

The eventual immersive installation at Pioneer Works will feature a hall of these mirrors alongside Laser's hallucinatory investigative report on mysteries found at Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris––regarded as the birthplace of Neurology and Psychology.

Filmed with French television journalist Laura Geisswiller, a reporter for the weekly TV show “Sept à Huit,” Laser continues her exploration of the news as our dominant art form for representations of reality. Laser’s project developed through nine years of intense conversation and friendship with the poet Ariana Reines.

The video installation can be experienced on Level 4 of The Shed during Frieze New York 2023.

Liz Magic Laser, Prototype for Convulsive States, 2023, commissioned by Pioneer Works. Single-channel video, 5:00 min, two-way mirrored glass, monitor, and wooden frame.

Video editing by Isaac Goes and Michelle Yoon of Kinet Media in collaboration with Liz Magic Laser 

Cinematography by Michelle Yoon

Costume styling and casting consultation by Felicia Garcia-Rivera 

Special thanks to Vivian Chui and Gabriel Florenz

Produced with equipment support from Pioneer Works and the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department.  Sound Design by Jared Arnold with some music by GOBBY among other solfeggio frequencies reputed to heal via electromagnetic tones. Prototype for Convulsive States, is a prototype for Liz Magic Laser's upcoming exhibition at Pioneer Works, opening September 2023.

About Liz Magic Laser

Liz Magic Laser (b. 1981, New York; lives and works in New York) is a multimedia artist whose installation work has involved collaborations with political strategists, market researchers, journalists, actors, dancers, therapists, surgeons, and motorcycle gang members. Her work has been shown at venues such as ICA Boston (2023); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2022); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2021); MUDAM The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (2021); Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2018); Metro Pictures, New York (2018); CAC Brétigny, France (2017); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (2017); the Swiss Institute (2016); the Whitney Museum of American Art (2015); MoMA PS1, New York (2010); Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (2015); Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2013) the Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany (2013); Lisson Gallery, London (2013); the Performa 11 Biennial, New York (2011). Laser is the recipient of grants from Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, the Southern Exposure Off-Site Graue Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art. Sternberg Press published her monograph, Public Relations / Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, in conjunction with a solo exhibition at the Westfälischer Kunstverein, Germany (2014). Her work has been critically acclaimed in publications such as Text zur Kunst, Artforum, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Frieze, and Art in America.

About Lola Kramer

Lola Kramer is a curator, writer, and editor based in New York City. She is known for her essays, profiles, and interviews with artists across creative disciplines. Kramer is currently serving as Curator-in-Residence at Dunkunsthalle, an artist-run project space founded by Rachel Rossin. Her recent curatorial project, 7 Gardens, was a public art exhibition designed to connect local public space to the practices of established and emerging artists working to represent ideas of nature and community engagement in the Lower East Side. Kramer’s writing has been featured in numerous publications, including the Whitney Biennial Catalogue, Frieze, Interview, CURA, and Kaleidoscope, as well as monographs published by MACK, Phaidon, and Rizzoli. She has organized exhibitions, artist conversations, and screenings at institutions like Städelschule in Frankfurt and the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College. In 2019, Kramer was the editor of the Bastard Cookbook, a collection of hybridized recipes by Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija and Finnish chef Antto Melasniemi. Kramer received her MA in Curatorial Studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in 2017, after which she served as Curatorial Director of Wide Rainbow, a contemporary art after-school program that connects artists with communities in under-resourced neighborhoods with limited access to the arts or arts education.

Further Information

Frieze New York returns to The Shed in Manhattan from May 17 to 21, 2023 and promises to be an unmissable event. With an unparalleled selection of galleries and artists, alongside a critically acclaimed curated program the fair is a highlight of the global art calendar.

Limited full price tickets are now on sale, buy yours now!

Tickets

To keep up to date on all the latest news from Frieze, sign up to the Frieze newsletter at frieze.com, and follow @friezeofficial on Instagram, Twitter and Frieze Official on Facebook.