In San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, an exhibit by artist Penelope Umbrico displays 1,400 photographs of the sun culled from the popular photo-sharing website Flickr. And last night in New York City, the Guggenheim Museum made its own case for the Web 2.0 as art. The event, dubbed “YouTube Play: Biennial of Creative Video,” was centered on the exhibition of amateur YouTube videos selected from over 23,000 entries.
And while the videos may have been presented through YouTube, they weren’t quite representative of your typical YouTube fare – none that we saw featured any cats in costume, for instance. The winning submissions ranged from music videos to Brazilian animation. One interesting submission revolved around a simple collage of interviews with Irish taxi drivers reflecting on their experiences with Irish political violence – not flashy, but effective nonetheless. Another of the finalists was a music video from the Internet’s favorite South African rap duo, Die Antwoord.
A jury comprised of established artists that included filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and music group Animal Collective decided the 25 winning entries. Aside from the videos, last night’s event also featured live presentations by comic Michael Showalter and music from OK Go, a band that’s known as a YouTube sensation in its own right for its quirky videos.
Winning submissions can be viewed at YouTube’s Play page or seen at the Guggenheim through Sunday.
