baby born in the back of an uber

2021 - NFT (NFT)

David Horvitz

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On March 30, 2015, at 5:52am, David Horvitz caught his daughter, Ela Melanie, as she was being born, in the back of an Uber driving through Midtown Manhattan. He held her up in the morning light as the car drove down Park Avenue, blocks away from the Museum of Modern Art, where Zanna Gilbert, the mother, was a fellow. After arriving at the hospital, Horvitz tweeted a photo and later e-mailed his friends and family with additional images. Following the event, and Horvitz’s post on Twitter, the story was picked up by media sources, in a chain reaction that ranged from the New York Post and CBS to Saturday Night Live and the series Nathan for You . While not planned as a public performance, the circulation of the story transformed it into a spectacle of sorts. In total, there are 14 documents that make up this work, ranging from a poem-like email, to the uber receipt showing the route and time, to images taken by Horvitz at the hospital—transferring Zanna out of the car into the care of nurses—and finally baby Ela’s inked footprints, her first trace that resembles art. According to Horvitz, baby born in the back of an uber takes the form of a viral birth event happening channeled through media publicity. It is: Mass Media art, Internet art, Performance art, Life art. It is an ephemeral work that only exists through its documentation and communication: in the network of online news, daily tabloids, art blogs, tweeted photographs, and personal emails.

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Although the practice plays a central role in the work of David Horvitz, his work is at the opposite of fine art objects. The conceptual work of the artist employs various mediums necessary for each intervention; yet, performance, the idea of the game and the exchange with the public are central. The artist often uses newspapers, web pages, postcards as a means of exchange with his audience and memories of actions carried out around the world. The notion of time is important in the artist work – noting the influence of On Kawara – and the environment is apprehended as an interactive and virtual land art. His work, presented through modest media and exhibition, is poetic, generous not only in virtue but in practice – many works are freely downloadable on the web – with social resonance and great inventiveness

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Colors:

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• spectacle.n.01
• medium.n.01
• objective.s.03
• internet.n.01
• life.n.01
• american performance artists
• mail art