Robert Heinecken: Object Matter

Eva Respini: This is one work made up of 24 individual images,
but they really are meant to be read as a single work of art.

Glenn Lowry: Heinecken created Inaugural Excerpt
Videogram during Ronald Reagan's televised presidential inauguration
in 1981. Curator Eva Respini.

Eva Respini:"Videogram" is a term that Heinecken used for
this method. He pressed photographic paper to the surface of the
television and exposed that paper. So whatever was on the TV is what's
imprinted on the paper.

Glenn Lowry: Robert Heinecken.

Robert Heinecken: The reason that they're fuzzy like they are
is that there's about a quarter of an inch of glass between the paper
and where the image is. So it can't focus cleanly like would if it was
in direct contact. But I prefer that kind of softer and more
indistinguishable image for this work.

Glenn Lowry: Before Ronald Reagan went into politics, he was
an actor.

Eva Respini: This is Reagan, the quote "actor president," and
it was very important to Heinecken to capture him. Beneath each image is
a text. It's a quote from either Reagan's speech at the Inauguration or
some of the news coverage. Here he's really authoring the text in a way
that he hasn't done before. He has left the juxtaposition of text and
images up to chance.

Glenn Lowry: Heinecken often rejected traditional notions of
artistic control and sole authorship in his artworks. For the creation
of Inaugural Excerpt Videogram, he wasn't even present. Eva
Respini.

Eva Respini: He created it with the help of his partner, Joyce
Neimanas, who was in the studio with the television. He was watching TV
at U.C.L.A. on the phone with his partner and telling her "Now— expose
the paper now." And this is how he made the work.