Paul Pfeiffer - Contemporary Art Part II New York Friday, May 18, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    The Project, New York; Private collection, New York

  • Exhibited

    New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, BitStreams, March 22 – June 10,
    2001 (another example exhibited); Kunstwerke Berlin e.V., Institute for Contemporary Art, Paul Pfeiffer: Medienrealitäten, May 14 – July 8, 2000(another example exhibited)

  • Literature

    C. Piene, “Paul Pfeiffer Eating and Excreting,” Flash Art, October 2000, pp. 84
    - 86 (illustrated); B. Pollack, “Back to the Future with ‘BitStreams’ -Whitney Museum of American Art,” Art in America, September 2001; F. Bonami, ed., BIDIBIDOBIDIBOO: Works from Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Italy 2004, p. 248 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom is a double-screen video loop of
    film director Cecil B. DeMille perpetually approaching, yet never quite
    reaching, a microphone placed at center stage, thereby evoking a hypnotic
    vision of the "birth of freedom" as something endlessly approached and
    endlessly deferred. (Whitney Museum of American Art, Bitstreams,
    Exploring the Importance of Digital Technology in American Art, Press
    Release, 2002)

    DeMille: Ladies and Gentlemen, Young and Old....This may seem an unusual
    procedure - speaking to you before the picture begins. But we have an
    unusual subject: The birth of freedom - the story of Moses.... The theme of
    this picture is whether men are to be ruled by God's law, or whether they are
    to be ruled by the whim of a dictator like Ramses. Are men the property of the
    state, or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues
    throughout the world today.

163

Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom

2000
Two LCD video monitors and metal mounts, two VHS tapes and two CDs.
5 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. (14 x 16.5 cm) each monitor.
Signed and titled “‘Prologue to the story of the Birth of Freedom’ Paul Pfeiffer” on CD. This work is from an edition of six plus one artist’s proof.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Sold for $96,000

Contemporary Art Part II

18 May 2007
10am & 2pm New York