Featuring Online Artist-Curated Video Program “Cats on Video, Cats on Film” with Works by Carolee Schneemann, Fischli & Weiss, Cory Arcangel, Mark Leckey and More

(NEW YORK, NY — July 30, 2021) — Times Square Arts, the largest public platform for contemporary performance and visual arts, is pleased to present Painted Cat Hacker Film by Jennifer West for the month of August as part of the organization’s signature Midnight Moment series. Midnight Moment is the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition, synchronized on over 75 electronic billboards throughout Times Square nightly from 11:57pm to midnight.

To celebrate Painted Cat Hacker Film, the artist will also present an online program of cat films and videos, titled Cats on Video, Cats on Film, available to watch on tsq.org/arts. The program features iconic cat video works by artists like Fischli & Weiss, Maya Deren, Joyce Wieland, Carolee Schneemann, Sarah Zucker, Cory Arcangel, Mark Leckey, and more.

Every night in August, glowing felines in Jennifer West’s Painted Cat Hacker Film will take over Times Square, transforming the “low art” of cat internet videos into a mesmerizing and monumental public artwork. To create the spectral and lo-fi effects in Painted Cat Hacker Film, West first compiled 16mm clips of cats against a green screen. Manipulating the celluloid in her signature style, West applied bright colored dye to the filmstrip before transferring it to high-definition video. The resulting piece is a multi-channel work of handmade digitized GIFs that pays homage to the feline’s role across many moving image genres — from the viral video, to experimental film, and the screens of Times Square themselves.

Painted Cat Hacker Film is also a playful nod to the ongoing phenomenon of the public’s fascination with cats on the Internet. The subject of both serious writing and light-hearted inquiry, research has suggested that viewing online cat media is linked to positive emotions, and that it even may work as a form of digital therapy or stress relief. To share this unique form of pleasure therapy, West will curate a selection of artists’ videos and films that feature cats to be shown both online and on Times Square billboards. Full schedule and details to be announced.

 

Jennifer West (b.1966, Topanga, CA)  is a Los Angeles-based artist who has explored materialism in film for over fifteen years. Significant commissions include works for Seattle Art Museum (2016-2017); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2016); The High Line, New York, NY (2012); MIT List Visual Arts Center (2011); Aspen Art Museum (2010); and Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London (2009). West has had solo exhibitions at JOAN Los Angeles (2020); Contemporary Art Museum St Louis (2018); Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China (2017); Seattle Art Museum (2016-2017); Museo d’Arte  Nuoro, Sardinia (2017); Tramway, Glasgow (2016); S1 Artspace, Sheffield, UK (2012); Kunstverein Nürnberg, Germany (2010); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, (2010); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2008); White Columns, New York, NY (2007). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at The Whitney Museum, New York, NY; Drawing Center, New York, NY; Pompidou Centre, Paris; Barbican, London; Kusthalle Schirn, Frankfurt; Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts, Bordeaux; and ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, among others. West received an MFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and a BA from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She has lectured widely on her ideas of the “Analogital” and is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Fine Arts at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design in California. Her writing has appeared in publications including Artforum, Frieze, and Mousse Magazine. West has produced fifteen zine artist books which were recently acquired by the Getty Museum.

ABOUT TIMES SQUARE ARTS
Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, collaborates with contemporary artists and cultural institutions to experiment and engage with one of the world's most iconic urban places. Through the Square's electronic billboards, public plazas, vacant areas and popular venues, and the Alliance's own online landscape, Times Square Arts invites leading contemporary creators to help the public see Times Square in new ways. Times Square has always been a place of risk, innovation and creativity, and the Arts Program ensures these qualities remain central to the district's unique identity. Generous support of Times Square Arts is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support for Midnight Moment is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Times Square Advertising Coalition. Visit TSq.org/Arts for more information. Follow us on Instagram at @TSqArts.

 

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