Candice Breitz

Candice Breitz comes from Johannesburg in South Africa. She studied in the U.S. for graduate studies and spoke about how she felt very foreign because of the cultural differences present within the other students. However, through this feeling, she discovered that as a collective entity everyone has been fed a common mainstream pop culture. She found that with this common mean she was able to engage people in a collective manner. She explored how she could speak through pop icons in a curiously universal language. Her interest lies with the relationship with the celebrities that have a public voice versus the public on the other side of the screen that have no voice because neither one can exist without the other. Her first video installation, entitled the Babel series, stemmed from her watching of lots of early MTV music videos. She took these videos and stripped them down to build a vocabulary comprised of very primal sounds that contained the potential to be built into phrases. The individual sounds were played on singular monitors in one room, so that the viewer could pose as the mixing desk, rather than Breitz creating one particular mix that she wants them to hear.

Her next installation grew from her want to use the lowest common denominator. She took classic love songs from various American songstresses, then clipped out all the first person and second person pronouns. She broke the songs down so that the viewer could really project themselves into the installation. Her works act in a way to free the icons so that she can get them to be her involuntary actors. Her next project centers on the archetypal mother and father figure. She plays it as celebrity death match between traditional parenting for the hearts and minds of kids. Her work is such an interesting exploration between the common denominator that exists between international societies. Since American pop culture is the powerhouse throughout the world, there is a language that creates a line culturally between so many nationalities. Breitz has tapped into this phenomenon and is discovering what level we connect to these pop icons. Her work is truly inspiring because she is breaking into a cross-nation discussion that does not have to deal with something serious. Even though it is not serious, it serves as a springboard to communicate with other countries. I respect that she stands behind the fact that she is doing her work in the method that she sees fit, but notices the impact it could have on a multi-national level.