Robert Heinecken: Object Matter

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Robert Heinecken. _TV/Time Environment_. 1970. Functioning television set, film transparency, chair, rug, plastic plant, and related magazine, dimensions variable. Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson. Robert Heinecken Archive. Gift of the artist. © 2014 The Robert Heinecken Trust

Robert Heinecken. TV / Time Environment. 1970/2014

Original black-and-white transparency, facsimile of Periodical #5, and recreated living room arrangement
Transparency: Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson
Robert Heinecken Archive. Gift of the artist
© The Robert Heinecken Trust

Director, Glenn Lowry: This is a contemporary recreation of an installation that Heinecken first developed in 1970. Curator Eva Respini.

Curator, Eva Respini: On the front of the television set is a transparency of a female nude. If you look carefully, through the body of the nude you'll see television playing in the background. The idea of chance juxtapositions is really important in this piece.

Glenn Lowry: Heinecken described how he made this work.

Artist, Robert Heinecken: I take the front of the set off, put this high-contrast film positive in there, and put the face of the thing back on. So it's very believable that the thing is inside the set and part of the image that's being generated.

Eva Respini: It's really meant to just be a lens through which you are watching TV. When Heinecken first installed this work, he simply put the television on. Whatever was playing at the time is what was in the installation and in the artwork. And so we've preserved the spirit of that piece by simply turning on the television and showing whatever happens to be on today in 2014.