Open House, excerpts (1999)
By Michael Smith
The New York Times ART IN REVIEW; Michael Smith and Joshua White -- 'Open House' By KEN JOHNSON Published: May 7, 1999 New Museum of Contemporary Art Michael Smith and Joshua White, collaborative producers of comedic installations, have here created an amusing and expansive if not terribly profound spin on the archetype of the sacred studio. Pass through a gateway of construction scaffolding and you discover a replica of a cluttered and grungy SoHo artist's loft. At the start, Mr. Smith himself speaks to you on videotape with deadpan, Spalding Gray-like charm, as though you were a prospective buyer. It seems that in response to skyrocketing SoHo real estate values, the artist, who may or may not be identical with Mr. Smith himself, has decided to sell out after living in extended-adolescent squalor for 20 years. When the brief video tour is over (''Loft beds aren't for everyone, but I think they're really great'') you're free to wander. In one area a television set plays interview excerpts from ''Interstitial,'' Mr. Smith's cable-access television program. Here and there are individual artworks like ''Sweat Equity,'' a sheetrock wall built as a form of process art and video perf…
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