Selected Works: Reel 1

This series of works by William Wegman consists of short scenes. They are improvised events in which his dog Man Ray regularly steals the show. The actions that Wegman performs in front of the camera are spontaneous, unpolished and humorous. The artist performs absurd monologues about everyday subjects in the seclusion of his studio or we watch as his faithful four-legged friend enthusiastically and greedily gobbles up a trail of milk from the floor. These performances are an ode to the banality of everyday life, an allusion to the simplicity of conceptual art and a parody of the clichés of commercial television in the 1970s. Selected Works: Reel 1 consists of 27 short video performances that were originally recorded on an open reel tape, in which the actual tape is not held within a cassette, but attached to open reels. Between 1972 and 1977, Wegman used the same approach to create another six tapes as a continuation of Selected Works: Reel 1, which are also part of the Stedelijk’s collection.