Born 1977
Lives Los Angeles
Interregnum
2008
Seven-channel installation and mixed media
Dimensions variable
Courtesy Vilma Gold
With his timely exploration of the interplay between fact and fiction in collective consciousness, Los Angeles-based Stephen G. Rhodes is fast establishing himself as an artist of the moment. Typical multimedia installations include Recurrency (2007), which reworks the film An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962) – derived from the 1891 short story by Ambrose Bierce in which a prisoner’s escape from hanging is suddenly revealed to have been a dying fantasy – and Who Farted?!!? (Interregnum) (2008), Rhodes’ acerbic riff on Disney World’s Hall of Presidents, in which all former presidents, living and dead, convene before Abraham Lincoln. Through sampling and splicing, Rhodes’ works question our popular obsession with the past as well as the means we use to remember it. (CG)
