Landmarks Video: John Pilson

Landmarks Video presents Mr. Pick Up (2001) by John Pilson. Pilson garnered attention in the late 1990s and early 2000s for works that featured individuals (often his friends and family members as actors) engaged in absurd and amusing behavior within office buildings. He examined how people define themselves through architectural spaces and how their characters emerge as a reaction to their environments. Pilson’s more recent work includes Frolic and Detour, a silent film on nine screens commissioned by MoMA in 2010, and a one person show of photography and video titled Long Story Shorts at Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery in 2011.

Mr. Pickup is at once a comedic farce and a humanistic tragedy. Like Pilson’s earlier works, it visualizes human moments within the walls of corporate spaces. Mr. Pick-Up not only reminds us that humans are universally flawed, but also underlines how appearances can be devastatingly deceiving.

Mr. Pick Up by John Pilson
Landmarks Video media station
ART building atrium, adjacent to Visual Arts Center galleries
23rd St. and San Jacinto Blvd.
Free admission
On view throughout May