Loading...

Echo, 1986

Media installation, Variable dimensions

The MACBA Collection includes two multimedia installations produced by Judith Barry between 1985 and 1987. In the Shadow of the City… Vamp r y and Echo are both large-scale installations with a similar spatial layout: a huge screen suspended in a dark space that forces the viewer to move from one side of the installation to another.

Echo consists of two slide projections and four looped video projections, two on each side of the space. The slides fade slowly into each other, showing images of opulent urban scenes and buildings in New York, while the videos show executives trapped within their own self-image, with gestures and attitudes that suggest a modern-day Narcissus. The soundtrack is a mix of urban noise and hypnotic music that reinforces the feeling of alienation. On one side of the installation, the slides show the interior and exterior of the IBM headquarters. Barry has captured the building during the day and night: in the daytime, it is lifeless in comparison with the noise of the streets; and at night, the artificial lighting gives it a ghostly feel. Barry incorporates Philip Johnson's mammoth buildings into this visual reflection on architecture, power and structure, showing the building that he designed for AT&T in New York, as well as the sculpture he made for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, which vaguely suggests a terrestrial globe.

Barry satirizes the anomie of the working methods of big American corporations and the narcissism of those who inhabit them. As in other works, she focuses on how consumerism, television, advertising and forms of production affect our lives in ways that are beyond our control.


Technical details

Original title:
Echo
Registration number:
4420
Artist:
Barry, Judith
Date created:
1986
Date acquired:
2011
Fonds:
MACBA Collection. MACBA Consortium
Object type:
Media installation
Media:
Slide projection and video on double-faced screen, sound, loop
Dimensions:
Variable dimensions
Edition number:
Ed. 3/5
Credits:
MACBA Collection. MACBA Consortium. Gift of the artist
Copyright:
© Judith Barry
It has accessibility resources:
No

The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.

For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.

If you need a high resolution image of the work, you must submit an image loan request.


Related

Videos

Images

Judith Barry "Echo", 1986
Judith Barry "Echo", 1986
Judith Barry "Echo", 1986
Judith Barry "Echo", 1986
Judith Barry "Echo", 1986
Judith Barry "Echo", 1986

Audios

FONS ÀUDIO #17. Judith Barry
05.02.2013