Press Release: Diana Thater

08.15.98

THE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

New Works: 98.3

Kendell Geers, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA,

Bill Lundberg, AUSTIN, TX

Diana Thater, LOS ANGELES, CA

Exhibition: September 10, 1998 ?tober 11, 1998

The International Artist-in-Residence Program, sponsored by ArtPace, A Foundation
for Contemporary Art | San Antonio presents New Works: 98.3, a series of
media-based installations by artists living and working at ArtPace. Kendell Geers, Bill
Lundberg and Diana Thater were selected by Susanne Ghez, Curator of the Renaissance
Society at the University of Chicago. Work produced by the artists during their eight-
week residency will open to the public on Thursday, September 10 at 6:30 PM. An artist
dialogue with Chrissie Iles, Curator of Film and Video at the Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York, will take place on Friday, September 11 at 6:30 PM.

Diana Thater

Based in Los Angeles, Diana Thater was born in San Francisco, California in 1962.
Thater holds a B.A. from New York University and a M.F.A. from the Art Center
College of Design, Pasadena, CA, where she is currently a faculty member. Her work has
been exhibited internationally, including commissions at the St. Louis Museum of Art,
MO; Portland Museum of Art, OR; Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland; The Renaissance
Society at the University of Chicago; SITE Sante Fe, NM; and the Witte de With Center
of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam. She was included in the 1995 Kwangju
Biennale; the 1995 Biennale de Lyon; the 1997 Skulpturen Projekte Munster;
and the 1995 and 1997 Whitney Biennials. After her ArtPace residency, Thater
will open solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the MAK
Center, Los Angeles.

At ArtPace, Thater continues her investigations of the spatial qualities of video and
historical texts. In collaboration with Los Angeles artist T. Kelly Mason, Thater has
converted the exhibition space into a modular room lined with white canvas. The
installation is comprised of six LCD video projectors hung from the ceiling. Unlike
previous works where the artist has used imagery, The Caucus Race, Gloria, Science
Facts, Nun Joke, Birthdays, Love and Honor, Green Color Theory uses language
as its primary visual. Green spheres interrupted by flashing blue texts from a variety of
sources, including a scene from Alice in Wonderland, scientific journals,
horoscopes and art

history. The viewer in the space is completely surrounded by the optical effect of
reflection and projection.

The video installation is the site for a large-scale event, The future that almost
wasn't, a collaboration between Thater and Los Angeles-based artists Jessica
Bronson, David Hollander, Jennifer Lane, T. Kelly Mason and Chris Wilder. On
September 10 and 12, the group will transform the installation into an environment for
live electronic music and video, complete with DJ, VJs, and computer-generated sounds.
The installation and event draws its inspiration from contributions to the avant-garde by
experimental artists including John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the collective
Experiments in Art and Technology, as well as contemporary youth- and pop-culture and
the energy surrounding club culture. Mixing video and music from thousands of sources
ranging from home movies to Hollywood films, the future... will be a charged,
stimulating visual and audio experience.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org