Postmasters Gallery is pleased to announce a show of new videos by Guy Ben Ner, his first exhibition in New York since 2010. The show will present two works: "Soundtrack" and "Foreign Names."

Currently based in Tel-Aviv, Ben Ner is known for his low-tech "home movies" of ingenious inventiveness in which the fine lines between stealing, appropriating, re-using, refreshing and abusing what already exists are frequently crossed. In each of Ben Ner's videos the cinematic means of production are being reassigned, most often by utilizing what is out there already, in the service of a new narrative. In the two videos on view at Postmasters, Ben Ner exploits the field of sound, whether the audio of a Hollywood film, or the utilitarian microphones of his chosen shooting locations.

In "Soundtrack" (2013) an epic narrative is subversively domesticated; Ben Ner, his family and friends re-enact eleven minutes of Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." Tom Cruise's dysfunctional yet heroic father protecting his children from the world-conquering aliens is recalibrated sound for sound by Ben Ner, whose own drama is set in his family's apartment in Tel Aviv. Small kitchen disasters of exploding blenders and stoves, broken bottles, flying fried eggs and falling toys are a stand-in for the extraterrestrial horror story, occasionally punctuated by real-life video footage of the Israeli-Lebanon and Palestinian conflicts streaming on the family laptop. Heroic and pathetic gestures are forever intertwined as we are left with the question which of the movies is more real. in the end you have two movies, like Siamese twins, sharing one and the same organ: The Sound. needless to say, one of the twins is a thief. the othera property owner (Guy Ben Ner).

Postmasters Gallery
54 Franklin Street
New York (NY) 10013 United States
Tel. +1 (212) 727 3323
postmasters@thing.net
www.postmastersart.com

Opening hours
Tuesday - Saturday from 11am to 6pm
Thursday from 11am to 8pm

Related images

  • 1, 2, 3 & 5. Guy Ben Ner, Soundtrack, 2013, single channel video, running time: 11 minutes, edition of 6 + AP
  • 4 & 6. Guy Ben Ner, Foreign Names, 2012, single channel video, running time: 4:49 minutes, edition of 6 + AP