Projects
ARTISTS TALKS
Actors unfamiliar with the work and language of contemporary art are asked to spontaneously present the works of well known artists as their own. The improvised talks are set up as a video database where viewers can choose from the eighteen three-minute long discs. While dexterous in their presentational abilities, the actors deliver information that is suspect, relying on popular …
HEAVEN AND HELL
In this installation, miniatures of the McCoys, their two daughters, and furniture rise and fall on motors suspended from the ceiling. "Is Jennifer and Kevin McCoy’s Heaven and Hell about being nice to people on the way up or the inevitability of descent? Situated in Silicon Valley, is it about the tribulations of the business cycle in particular or the …
I'LL REPLACE YOU
For this project the McCoys hired fifty actors to replace them in executing the many responsibilities they undertake every day. The resulting 15 minutes long video zeroes in on the actor, the idea of typecasting, and the fragmentation of life. Dispensing with Hollywood cornerstone of continuity for each of the "roles" the McCoys play in life (artist, professor, parent, friend, …
JENNIFER AND KEN MCCOY/JESSICA AND KEVIN MCCOY
Exploring the idea of substitution, two large scale photographs. "Jennifer and Ken McCoy/Jessica and Kevin McCoy" are post performative photographs in which one of the artists is paired with a rotating array of passer-bys, friends, and colleagues dressed as the significant other. Here the genre of "couple" is explored through a deadpan mosaic of costumed participants. In these works, the …
VICE PRESIDENTIAL DOWNTIME REQUIREMENTS
In Vice Presidential Downtime Requirements , (2008) the McCoys assemble a suite of furniture taken from the travel requests of Vice President Dick Cheney. The piece is part of a series of works by the McCoys based on "band rider" agreements, contracts stipulating the hospitality needs of touring artists, speakers and musicians. These rider agreements are often leaked online through …
BIG BOX
In the two Big Box sculptures, models of an American-style big box shopping mall are placed on a slowly rotating turntable. The clean, nearly featureless buildings facades have been modified. In one reality, a trash-filled wasteland, and in another an over-grown jungle. In the wasteland, zombies have made advances. In the jungle, the mall has been converted to a biosphere. …
THE CONSTANT WORLD
The Constant World, with its incorporation of thirty-six live video cameras, presents a utopian world that acts as its own advertisement. This installation is a large interconnected series of ceiling mounted metal spheres, models, and lights. It portrays a film noir melodrama set in an urban environment that is intercut with text elements. The result, seen on flat screen displays, …
THE HIGH SEAS
A video camera and light circle a stationary boat model, moving up and down along a wave guide as they move. The projected image creates an illusion of the ship tossing and pitching on stormy seas.
DOUBLE FANTASY 2 (SEX)
The artists are portrayed as young people in a miniature tableau which reconstructs an early experience in which a future sexual experience was imagined. The sculpture consists of a vertically-oriented platform mounted on a floor-based stand. Miniature elements, lighting and cameras are mounted on either side of the platform. The live video cameras capture shots of the tableau, which are …
DOUBLE FANTASY 3 (CAREER)
The artists are portrayed as young people in a miniature tableau which reconstructs an early experience in which a future career experience was imagined. The sculpture consists of a vertically-oriented platform mounted on a floor-based stand. Miniature elements, lighting and cameras are mounted on either side of the platform. The live video cameras capture shots of the tableau, which are …
DOUBLE FANTASY 4 (GOD)
The artists are portrayed as children experiencing early spiritual/religious events. The sculpture consists of a vertically-oriented platform mounted on a floor-based stand. Miniature elements, lighting and cameras are mounted on either side of the platform. The live video cameras capture shots of the tableau, which are sequenced by computer into an endlessly looping live video, projected as part of the …
DREAM SEQUENCE
A large two-sided wheel, set at a forty-five degree angle, rotates slowly on its axis. The wheel is covered with miniature elements depicting dream-like imagery. Next to the rotating wheel, two miniature figurines representing the artists are lying asleep in twin beds. In front of each bed is a half-silvered mirror, partially reflecting the slowly moving dream images, and partially …