I Want You

2008 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

Tony Labat


Commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and riffing on the “I Want You” army recruitment campaigns of the 1930s and 1940s, Labat asked Bay Area residents to interpret the slogan and make their own demands of the public in a series of live performance auditions. Given one minute to seize the voice of authority, contestants were asked to be the finger-pointing Uncle Sam, and their performances—as on the TV program American Idol —were voted on by a live audience. Five winners were chosen and their image and slogans appeared on posters throughout San Francisco to coincide with the presidential elections. A video of all auditions premiered at SFMOMA on election night.


Since the early 1980s, Cuban-born Tony Labat has been an important participant in the California performance and video scene. A pioneer in video installation, his work often identifies with the “outsider,” whether the artist or the immigrant and comments on displacement and marginalization. Labat has exhibited internationally in venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Laguna Art Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; the National Gallery of Poland; the Helsinki Museum of Art; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and the National Gallery of Greece, Athens.


Colors:



Awaiting Enacted
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2003

This work needs to be considered in relation to one of his performances during which people were made to queue in front of the Kunsthalle of Frankfurt in 2003 (Tate Collection)...

Slowed-down Journey
© » KADIST

Roman Ondak

2003

As the caption purposely admits, these drawings were made by friends of Ondák’s at home in Slovakia asked to interpret places he has journeyed to...

Paint, Unpaint
© » KADIST

Kota Ezawa

2014

Paint and Unpaint is an animation by Kota Ezawa based on a scene from a popular 1951 film by Hans Namuth featuring Jackson Pollock...

Gary Gilpatrick, Insulator
© » KADIST

Sharon Lockhart

2008

Lockhart’s film Lunch Break investigates the present state of American labor through a close look at the everyday life of the workers at the Bath Iron Works shipyard—a private sector of the U...

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No Title
© » KADIST

Félix González-Torres

1992

Behind the simplicity and beauty of this untitled photograph of a brilliantly-colored flowerbed by Félix González-Torres are two remarkable stories of love, loss, and resilience...

Map (from Uncertain Pilgrimage), 2006-2009
© » KADIST

Gareth Moore

2006

Uncertain Pilgrimage is an ongoing project in which Moore draws from his unplanned travels in recent years...

Central Station
© » KADIST

Firenze Lai

2013

Central Station, Alignment, and Sumo are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds...

The Nightwatch
© » KADIST

Francis Alÿs

2004

The Nightwatch , which is an ironic reference to the celebrated painting by Rembrandt, follows the course of a fox wandering among the celebrated collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London...

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No Title
© » KADIST

Félix González-Torres

1992

Behind the simplicity and beauty of this untitled photograph of a brilliantly-colored flowerbed by Félix González-Torres are two remarkable stories of love, loss, and resilience...

Map (from Uncertain Pilgrimage), 2006-2009
© » KADIST

Gareth Moore

2006

Uncertain Pilgrimage is an ongoing project in which Moore draws from his unplanned travels in recent years...

The Illusion of Everything
© » KADIST

Daniel Crooks

2014

The Illusion of Everything (2014) follows an unseen pedestrian as he navigates the Australian city of Melbourne’s dense and intricate network of laneways...

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Leading Collector of Middle Eastern Art to Sell Dozens of Works at Sotheby’s - via ARTnews
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Abdulrahman Al Zayani is selling more than 80 works by Middle East artists....

The Power of a Poem
© » ARTS EQUATOR

The Power of a Poem | ArtsEquator Skip to content Zakir Hossain, a celebrated poet and migrant worker in Singapore, wrote a poem, which sparked a response from the state...

William E. Jones
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This interview was directed by Sharon Lerner, Los Angeles 2011...

European Masterworks from the Phillips Collection Share a Modern Vision for Art with Milwaukee - via Milwaukee Independent
© » LARRY'S LIST

European masterworks from the Phillips Collection share a modern vision for art with Milwaukee | The Milwaukee Independent European masterworks from the Phillips Collection share a modern vision for art with Milwaukee Posted by Editor | Nov 16, 2019 | The Milwaukee Art Museum hosted a preview exhibit tour for the local media on November 13 for their blockbuster exhibit “A Modern Vision: European Masterworks from the Phillips Collection” which runs until March 22, 2020...

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Related artist(s) to: Tony Labat » Bay Area, » Paul Kos  
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Sirens
© » KADIST

Paul Kos

1977

Taking its title from the eponymous mythological creature—famously featured as sea nymphs in Homer’s Odyssey...

Sound of Ice Melting
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Paul Kos

1970

Sound of Ice Melting is based on the ancient Zen Buddhist koan about the sound of one hand clapping...

Lightning
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Paul Kos

1976

Parked on the shoulder of a single lane highway running through a desert landscape, Marlene looks over her shoulder from inside the car at a fierce storm looming over a distant horizon...

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M+ Museum Pulls Three Politically Charged Works From Exhibition Dedicated to Works from Swiss Collector, Spurring Speculation of Censorship - via ARTnews
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The museum said the removal of the works, one of which references the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, were part of a routine rehang....

Kanye West's Teenage Artwork Was Reportedly Purchased by an Art Collector - via Vanity Fair
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The pieces were initially appraised for between $16,000 and $23,000 on Antiques Roadshow....

WTEIA3
© » KADIST

Daniel Boyd

2017

Daniel Boyd’s work WTEIA3 is part of a series of paintings that reference the stick charts used by indigenous communities on the Marshall Islands...

Timothy Huffman and Ira Sims
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Dawoud Bey

2012

On 15 September 1963 members of the Ku Klux Klan blew up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama up using dynamite...