SPECTATOR SPORT

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June 2012

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FJORD Gallery is pleased to announce the title and opening of its second show: Spectator Sport. Spectator Sport is a co-curatorial video show organized and conceived by Caroline Claflin and Sean Robert FitzGerald. This exhibition will feature video works from artists living across America and Canada, including: Allofthetrash, Andy Cahill, Melissa Cha, Greg Condon, Carl Maxwell Douglas,Dennis Hlynsky, Alex Nguyen, Michael Robinson, David Sherman and Tonetta.

A spectator sport is a spectacle fundamentally characterized by its inherent necessity for the presence of an audience. The spectator is an integral part of the mythology of this tradition. In this particular collection of videos, the audience is made accountable and implicit in the arena of the gallery. Viewing these works in a gallery space catalyzes a somewhat paradoxical atmosphere of privatized public experience. These videos function by staging and reframing the editorial consciousness of their viewer: they pander and present, blurring the separation between spectacle and spectator as well as those between activity and passivity. This collection of video presents the audience with the challenge of accountability.