Jamie Diamond (MFA'08) in East Coast Video Exhibit at Ramis Barquet, Opening July 9

Jamie Diamond (MFA '08) is in a group exhibition of recent work by six young New York City based video artists, curated by Nick Kilner, at Ramis Barquet in New York titled East Coast Video.

Since Andy Warhol's 1960's experiments with his 16mm Bolex, the moving image has played a significant part in New York's art scene. His Screen Tests, unedited four minute long living portraits on film, saw a variety of sitters performing themselves for the camera, and helped establish a language of voyeurism that is still relevant in video today.

Like the Screen Tests, all the work in East Coast Video takes place in front of a stationary camera in a privatized space and is for the most part shot in one unedited take. The emphasis here, however, is firmly on performing for the camera, engaging the viewer directly and in some cases implicating them in the final product. Themes of voyeurism, sincerity, endurance and an overwhelming desire to please unite the work that ranges in tone from the humorous to the severe. Exhibiting artists are Caraballo-Farman, Jamie Diamond, Kate Gilmore, Alex McQuilkin and Rashaad Newsome.

In With Open Arms (2005), Kate Gilmore, standing in front of a wall decorated with silver duct tape stars and dressed in a pretty frock, doggedly attempts to perform while being pelted with tomatoes from behind the camera, continually flinging her arms wide open and maintaining a winning smile as she wipes the pulp from her eyes. In Test Run (2004) Alex McQuilkin draws the viewer into a suicidal fantasy as she slowly sinks beneath the surface of her bathwater and remains there until running out of breath, all the while holding the camera at arms length.


Rashaad Newsome’s Shade Compositions: Screen Tests 1&2 (2009) present a series of black women auditioning, with varying degrees of success, culturally specific or stereotyped gestures under the artist’s direction, while in Jamie Diamond’s Untitled (History of a Portrait series, 2009) the artifice of the pose of two strangers, acting as a couple for the camera, is exposed by capturing aspects of its construction in real time. Finally, in Caraballo-Farman’s For A While We Were All Protagonists (2006), 15 vibrators dance until their batteries run out.

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 9 from 6 - 8 PM
Exhibition Dates: July 9 – August 14, 2009

For more information or images contact Amanda Alvarez at amanda@ramisbarquet.com.
Ramis Barquet
532 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011
212.675.3421
mail@ramisbarquet.com
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10-6 PM.

To see more of Jamie's work, visit www.jamiegdiamond.com