Art History 207

News, Hans Haacke, 1969, Installation, RSS newsfeed, paper, and printer, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, Conceptualism.

News happened for the first time in a show in Germany in 1969 and 1970 in New York. This work according to me is something like a way to record time and to realize that with passing time the conceptualism of news wirth time is unnoticed and there is so much that is taking place around you that we fail to even record or remember about it. The installation by all means was extremely and highly conceptual with the hidden deep meanings within it. It is a very first time the real time feed was realized. Hans Haacke is looking at the context of art, how art is being presented and who’s paying back to the art. He was keen on making a statement through is work. In this piece he not only makes the viewer get a statement and be involved within the piece but involves the artwork to interact within its space as well, through the constant printing of the feed. The printer we see prints the news from the current RSS feed from many news agencies in 2008 such as New York Times, CNN but even ones like Prafta and many other sources as well. In the end it would be a heap of yesterdays news and last months news when the paper would get printed out. (Frieling)

On a basic level, News transforms anecdotal reportage into reams of paper, reflecting, in part, upon the de-humanization of the digital age. But at a time when the world’s daily descriptions circulate virtually, this work lends those anecdotes a hard and fast materiality. (H. Merijian, Web)

Frieling, Rudolf, dir. RUDOLF FRIELING ON HANS HAACKE. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2008. Audio. 17 May 2013. <http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/multimedia/audio/aop_tour_401 >.

H. Merjian, Ara. “Hans Haacke.” Frieze Magazine, Issue 150. Oct 2012: n. page. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <https://www.frieze.com/issue/review/hans-haacke/>.