HALFWAY TO VEGAS is a selection of film/video works of artist, Asher Hartman. Known for his work in the intersection of performance and theater, Hartman uses utterance, gesture and the inane parlance of the entertainment industry to explore the losses inherent in the performance of American masculinity in his film/video works. The three works featured in HALFWAY TO VEGAS were shot before, during, and after Hartman’s transition from female to male reflecting bewilderment at the debilitating scripts of American masculinity. Infantile and speechless, blathering and sadistic, the characters in Hartman’s film/video works seem to be desperately scanning for respite inside the farcical negotiations for power and privilege they set up and fracture.
Asher Hartman is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice centers on the exploration of the self in relation to Western histories and ideologies. Hartman’s work has been exhibited extensively including at The Hammer Museum/Machine AIR, Whitney Biennial in collaboration with Curious Notch and Charles Long, the Beijing Open Performance Festival, The Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila), Recontres International (Paris/Berlin), Torrance Art Museum, MIX/NYC and Migrating Forms (New York), London Underground Film Fest and Images (Toronto) and in a number of Los Angeles venues including solo and collaborative performances at Machine Project, LACE, Sea and Space Explorations, Monte Vista Projects, Human Resources, Track 16, and Highways Performance Space, and New Image Art. Forthcoming are performances at The Walker Art Center and a large-scale installation performance at Machine Project. Hartman received his BA from UCLA and MFA from CalArts. set up and fracture.
ASHER HARTMAN: Halfway to Vegas is organized by UCR Culver Center of the Arts and is curated by Jeff Cain, exhibition designer and UCR ARTSblock and Jennifer Frias, associate curator, UCR Sweeney Art Gallery. Support for for the exhibition is provided by UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
