Marc Lafia Works in Chronological Order  2024

The Practicing Human  2023

(25 Tableaux, Part 1, 57 poems, Part 2, 41 poems, 7.2 hours)

Performance | Video Installation | Varied Media

This work includes, the written text or score, notations and direction of the staging of score, voice recordings, soundtrack or scored voice,  25 engineering prints of image collages, paper collages on canvas, set props, costumes, video recordings)

The two-day performance was staged over two evening and was drawn mostly from The Quantum Sutras of Shiva, Shakti and the UFOs with shorter sections of Luxor: Can I Pass My Own Turing Test, Revolution of our Times, Blah, Blah, Blah, and Lost to Wind.

The Quantum Sutras of Shiva, Shakti and the UFOs 2022-23

(122 poems, 4 hours 25 minutes)

Performance |Sound Poem | Varied Media

On the whole, the West’s receptiveness to the voice of the East (with respect to Europe) has been limited to periods of spiritual emergency, to moods of futility and despair; its attitude toward Asia was either that of the conqueror, armed with his gun and gospel truth, or that of the pilgrim in sackcloth and ashes, anxious to prostrate herself at the guru’s feet.

If the Greeks aspired for immortality, granted to men by exceptional deeds, the Hindus aspired for something beyond time and history, and that was eternity.

Yangshuo, Lost to Wind 2022

(35 poems, 50 minutes, recorded version; written version is longer)

Performance |Sound Poem | Varied Media

I had spent time in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, exhibiting in each place as a contemporary artist, so I was familiar with how vibrant these cities and their contemporary art scenes were.

Chinese history and culture is extraordinarily rich, yet in such places, the contemporary makes it difficult to see this long arc of time. And after Hong Kong, it was the very specificity of time and place that I was interested in.

Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times Blah, Blah Blah 2022

(28 poems, 70 minutes)

Performance |Sound Poem | Varied Media

The first of a trilogy of written, spoken and scored narratives, taking place in Hong Kong, then Yangshuo, China, and Varanasi, India.

Societies are built on shared narratives, which very often become invisible, and in seeing them, they help us see ourselves.

'West' and 'east' were built on the myth of progress, yet anxiety and frenzy devastate us. Yes, the looming climate emergency, the enmeshment of technology with domination, imperialism and colonialism and the relentless exercise of forms of power, sovereignty and parochialism that perpetuate the mentalities policing our external national borders and geopolitical thinking – all have ‘us’ worried, disorientated, and troubled.

Extinction, Extension A New Slice of the Geologic Record 2021

Paper Sculpture

Canson cream colored 90lb paper with brass grommets

Size : Variable

Hanging the complete ensemble of paper works (not including the birds) range from 6-7 feet to 13-14 ft high and 3-4 ft wide 

Rolled up for shopping as a kind of Sarcophagus 4ft long and 35 inches in diameter. 

The figures above are 13 to 14 ft high and 4 ft wide hung simply on a wire or string and paper clips. So they are very light but yet have a nice body to them.

Exhibited in the Guangzhou Triennial, 2023

Luxor  2020

Writing, Recordings, Performance Notes

Folder: Luxor 2020

This work for now includes the written text, two paper collages on canvas and voice recordings of the text.

The Event of Art 2020

Book (punctumbooks)

Folder: The Event of Art Archive

The Event of Art (forthcoming Spring 2020) presents the work of art as a complex material and societal event, 852 pages, 1000 images

Everything is Everything  2019

Performance | Video Installation | Varied Media

This work includes, the written text or score, notations and direction of the staging of score, voice recordings, soundtrack or scored voice,  25 engineering prints of image collages, paper collages on canvas, set props, costumes, video recordings)

Storage: rolled up canvases, engineering prints

Folder: Everything is Everything Archive

Image Projections Archives 2000-2020

These include a number of various sets of image curated for Everything is Everything for projections.

Folder: Image Projections Archives

Black Paper White Ink drawings 2019

Works on Paper

a series of 8 x 10 white ink line drawings on black paper

Storage: Archive Box

Folder: Drawings Archive Portfolios; Drawing Portfolio

Covid and other Drawings 2015-2021

Series #1 3x5_4x6

July 2020

63 Drawings in Sets  Small Drawing Set 1

17 drawings 3 1/2 x 4 7/8 on paper source flat paper cards.

Small Drawing Set 2

7 drawings 5 x 3 on varied artist papers

Small Drawing Set 3

9 drawings 5 x 5 on varied artist papers

Small Drawing Set 4

6 drawings 6 x 4 on varied artist papers

Small Drawing Set 5

13 drawings 5 x 3 on varied artist papers

Small Drawing Set 6

8 drawings 3 x 5 on varied artist papers

These 63 drawings alternate between white jelly roll pen on black paper and bamboo stick drawing with india ink on white paper.

Series #2 Black Fabriano

July 2020

13 drawings 9 x 12 inches   

13 drawings, white jelly roll pen on black black Fabiano paper. (140 lb. / 300 gsm)

Series #3  Black Fabriano

Dec 2019/August 2020

93 drawings 9 x 12 inches

93 drawings, white jelly roll pen on black black Fabiano paper. Most of these are 9 x 12. But for maybe 10 or 12 of these I cut the paper into different sizes. (140 lb. / 300 gsm)

Series #4 B_W Portraits

July 2020

4 drawings 9 x 12 inches

Yasutomo Black Sumi ink on Strathmore 100lb (270 gsm) Bristol

Series #5 B_W Wide Brush

July 2020

14 drawings 9 x 12 inches

Yasutomo Black Sumi ink on Strathmore 100lb (270 gsm) Bristol

Series #6 Ten B_W Drawings

July 2015

10 drawings 9 x 12 inches

Yasutomo Black Sumi ink on Strathmore 100lb (270 gsm) Bristol

Series #7 Water Colors

June - July 2015

31 drawings 9 x 12 inches

Watercolor, Yasutomo Black Sumi Ink and pencil on Legion Yupo water color paper.

Series #8 Carson Cream Paper

February June 2020

61 drawings (each has a unique size varying from approximately  2 x 2, 2 x 11, 3.5 x 7, 4 x 6,  5 x 8, 7 x 12 and more)

Yasutomo Black Sumi ink Canson Ingres cream 27 lb drawing paper.

Computations |  Permutations  2019

A new software release of early computations and permutations. The Max MSP project now allows for  stand alone self executable single artwork app.

Folder: Computations |  Permutations  2019 Archive (includes software and media)

Exhibition: Early version in Future Cinema

Catalogue: ZKM, Germany

Shoot Robot 2018

Mannequins, drawings, fabrics, plastics, corrugate plastic, video monitors

Storage: Large Plastic containers in the basement, Archive Box of reference pictures

Folder: Shoot Robot Archive

Documentation: Chapter 31, The Event of Art

Engineering Prints 2018

Blow ups of various drawing, fabric overlaid on them or arranged as collage on canvas. The engineering print is black and white on very thin paper, always 36 inches wide and I must often print 72 in length.

Storage: Rolled up in main closet

Folder: Engineering Prints Archive

Exhibition: Everything is Everything and there is Nothing Else, prints also used in Shoot Robot

Making Sense  2018

Select fabric works

soft sculptures made of various fabrics, plastics, gauze, silk, mesh,, assorted threads, pink and other colored latex, plastic hoses, silk, white ma zippers with brass, lamp paper, neoprene, acrylic, airline life preservers

Storage: Many many works rolled up in main closet

Folder: Making Sense Archive

Exhibition:

Seeing, Seeing Again  2018

This is a series of sets of 4 photographs per page. Page by page there are different sections of images

Folder: Seeing, Seeing Again Archive

Strata 2018

Prints that evolved out of the Instrumental Reason series focusing on geology, rare minerals, the earth.  The series was never produced.

Folder: Strata

In What Language to Come 2017

Soft sculptures made of various fabrics, plastics, gauze, silk, mesh,, assorted threads, pink and other colored latex, plastic hoses, silk, white ma zippers with brass, lamp paper, neoprene, acrylic, airline life preservers

12-15 of these works were exhibited at 1 Gap

Storage: (in house)

Folder: In what language to come archive

Exhibited at 191

Documentation: hundred of photos

Realms 2016

Performance script, Image Archive, Notational Score, Installation

Storage: Image Sets Archival box

Folder: Realms Archive

Codex 2016

A series of curated images sets to form a rebus or codex.

Storage:  Image Sets Archive box

Folder: Codex Archive

Being Art 1996-2016

Performance, Photographs

Storage: Image Sets Archival box

Folder: Being Art Archive

Documentation: PDF

Totems 2016

Sculptures (Dye baked print on Aluminum)

2 fabricated

4 more designed but not fabricated

Storage: (in house)

Folder: Totems Archive

Portfolio: Aluminums Portfolio

Collection: Lucy Roreck

Eros 2015

Artist Accordion Shaped Book printed on Presentation Matte Paper 121 lbs

with individual panels bound by linen tape

Also printed on rice paper, mounted on wood

Storage: Artist Books boxes

Folder: Eros Archive

Artist Books 2013-15

A series of hand made books, 12 or more

Lists of individual works in the archive folder

Storage: These works are in individual boxes and are often prototypes or limited editions of which I may have made 1, 2 or 3 of each book

Folder: Artists Books Archive

Catalogue: Pdf of select books

Exhibition:The Unbounded Wo(r)ld, Artist Books of Marc Lafia, Wu Jin Bookstore, Beijing, China Summer 2013

Cape Cod Water colors, series titled, Cooked Raw, 2015

20 plus 8 x 10 drawings in black ink and water color

2 drawings blown up at Lamont and printed

Storage: Archival box

Folder: Cape Water Colors Archive

27 (narrative film) 2015

Narrative film screened at Anthology Film Archives

Screenplay designed and published

Folder: 27 Archive

Files: digital HD .mov file.

Exhibition: 2 screenings at Anthology Film Archives, New York

Documentation: Book of screenplay.

History Pictures, 2015

5 printed, Auction, Buddha, Invention of Plants, America, Bernini

60 photoshop files never printed

Storage: Two prints at the house

Folder: History Pictures Archive

Exhibition: Select Art Fair

Catalogue: Pictures in Conversation

Collections: Lucy Roreck, Philadelphia Museum

#Image 2014

Tumblr Prints, Book Sculptures, Fabric Piece

Storage: Books are in various boxes, each work has an image, title and photograph of how the book sculpture is to be assembled around a plexiglass vitrine on the floor

Folder:  #Image Archive

Catalogue: PDF of exhibition

Exhibition: Gowanus Showroom

Tumblr Room, 2013-2015

Photography, video works

Storage: Large framed bring in the house,

Folder: Tumblr Room Archive

Exhibition: Dystopia And Its Content(ment)s, The Tumblrroom, Bank Gallery, 2013

PhotoFairs, Shanghai, Robert Mapplethorpe, Daido Moriyama, Marc Lafia, Chen Zhe, 2016

Satisy Me, Berlin, #Image, New York, Gowanus Showroom

Catalogues: Tumblr Vol 1, Tumblr Vol 2

Collections: (need to look up german collector), Lucy Roreck, Martial Vivot, Mathieu Borysevicz,

and many others

Blackboards

These colorful blackboards solicit audience feedback, creativity, and self-expression within a public context. It is a handmade, micro manifestation of the social media networks that have pervaded our lives.

Storage: The blackboards were made on four occasions specifically for exhibition and then disposed of.

Folder: Blackboards Archive

Blackboard Version 1, Art as Invention, 2011

Black Chalk painted blackboard

Folder:, Blackboards Archive

Exhibition: Daft, Shanghai Gallery of Art

Documentation: Daft Catalogue

Blackboard Version 2, Eternal Sunshine, 2012

Blue Chalk painted blackboard

Folder: Blackboards Archive

Exhibition: Eternal Sunshine

Documentation: Eternal Sunshine pdf

Blackboard Version 3,  Filter the Public,  2013

Yellow, Red, Blue ^(need dimensions)

Folder: Blackboards Archive

Exhibition: Shanghai Financial Center

Documentation: PDF

Blackboard Version 4, Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale,  2014

Red Blue Green ^(need dimensions)

Folder:, Blackboards Archive

Exhibition: Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, We have Never Participated, 2014

Documentation: We Have Never Participated Exhibition photographs

Catalogue: Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, We have Never Participated, 2014

An Anatomy of Pictures  2012

18 24 x 30 C-prints

Storage: Print Portfolio in main closet

Folder:  Anatomy of Pictures Archive

Catalogue: Anatomy of Pictures

Exhibition: Amusing Ourselves to Death, Shanghai Gallery of Art

Instascapes  2012

Site Specific Sculptures

Instascapes are lightweight sculptural transparencies mimicking camera filters. they are designed to be social and playful, produced at varying scales from window size to billboard size.

Storage: Small model mockups in archive box, all original destroyed.

Folder: Instascapes Archive

Exhibition: Figment 2012, Governors Island

Cartographies 2011

6 prints 24 x 30 C-prints

Prints: 2 framed at the house

Storage: Print Portfolio in main closet

Folder: Cartographies Archive

Guest 10497, 2012

HD Video and 2 channel video

Files: digital HD .mov file.

Folder: Guest 10497 Archive

Exhibition: Minsheng Museum of Art, Tribeca Film Institute, Tribeca Grand Hotel, April 2012

Documentation: Poster, flyers for screening

Eternal Sunshine  2011-2012

Solo exhibition, 4 rooms at the Mingsheng Museum of Art, Shanghai. A large scale, interactive installation, including multiple videos, sculptures, prints, blackboard, faux swimming pool, ping pong table, drum kit, drink dispenser.

Storage: Prints and films are here and in their own archives. Works included Pool installation, Public Relations Get Happy, Film Stills Still History, Double Fantasy, Guest 10497,, Chat Roulette, Raindrop Ecstasy,

Folder: Eternal Sunshine Archive

Exhibition: Minsheng Museum of Art, Shanghai, solo show, Eternal Sunshine, 2011-2012, Anthology Film Archives 2011

Cinema Series 2010-13

Cinema Series: You’re Seven Today, You’re a Man Now; Aim Straight Ahead, You Ever Read the Books You Burn, Like

Honey, I See You Chancellor, Hunter Victim, video diptych series 24 minutes,

Storage: DVD Design Cases

Folder: Cinema Series Archive

Files: .mov file.

Exhibition: Minsheng Museum of Art, Shanghai, 2011, Pratt Museum of Art

Raindrop Ecstasy, 2011

Three Channel Video Installation, 7 minutes, 2011

Storage: Feature Film, Diptych

Folder: Raindrop Ecstasy Archive

Exhibition: Minsheng Museum of Art, Shanghai, solo show, Eternal Sunshine, 2011-2012, Anthology Film Archives 2011

Writing Spaces, 2011

On line writing space

Chatroulette  2010

Performance, Social Photography

Storage: Archival Box

Folder: Chatroulette Archive

Exhibition: Bruce High Quality Art Foundation Biennale, Eternal Sunshine

Revolution of Everyday Life, 2010

HD feature, 72 minutes, also showed clips of actors alone in an installation

Folder: Revolution of Everyday Life

Files: .mov file.

Exhibition: 17 Frost Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Documentation: photographs, book, Everyday Cinema

Public Relations, 2010

Print Series

Storage: made into a small fold up artist book

Folder: Public Relations Archive

Exhibition: Eternal Sunshine

Paradise, 2009

Film: HD Video *note length

Storage: DVD

Folder: Paradise Archive

Files: .mov file.

Exhibition: Norwood Club,Paradise, New York, NY, 2010

Documentation: Reviews, screenings, artwork, actors correspondence, reference pictures

F4 Desktop, Framing, 2007

Conceptual Photographs

Folder: F4 Archive

Documentation: the book Image Photograph

3 Things, 2007

Software, allowing anyone to put three videos side by side, starting with 3 youtube videos
Storage: The app no longer exists as the code was abandoned.

Folder: 3Things Archive

Documentation: Stills of the works, the interface and curation of users

En Garde 2006

Performance Videos

These are on site whimsical performances of the utterance of the word ‘en garde’ of very short videos.

Folder: En Garde Archive

Files: .mov file.

Self Exposures My Space Portraits, 2007

Photographs, F4, the Desktop Photography Collective, presents: Self- Exposure, photographs of the new condition of social media photography and narration.

Folder: My Space Portraits Archive

Publication: Space Monkey Book and Image Photograph

Media Minatures, 2006
‘Monica Vitta’ ‘Telegraph Wind’ ‘Joan of Arc’ ‘Camera Lucida’  'Between', 'Variable Montage', 'Masks', 'Window', 'Bridge' and 'Sea'

Folder: Select Videos

Exhibition: Pratt Museum, Media Miniatures, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, 2006, The Chinese Academy of Art, New Media

The Battle of Algiers, 2006, 2018

Interactive Software Installation

Folder: This Battle of Algiers

Exhibition: Programmed, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2018, Tate Museum

Collection: The Tate Britain and The Whitney Museum of American Art

*In 2018 the work was installed in the gallery and its flash code updated to java.

Harry Zelda and Antoinette, 2005

Computational Narrative Film

Software: Max Patch

Folder: Permutations Solange

Documentation: Everyday Cinema

Permutations,  2005 - ongoing

365 multi-screen short films

Software: Max Patch

Storage: Permutations Reference Prints Box

Folder: Permutations Archive

Exhibition: Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York 2006

Documentation: Photographs of the opening and installation, and many photographs of actual permutations, Everyday Cinema

Essay: The Death of the Reel, Daniel Coffeen, chapter in Everyday Cinema

Computations, 2003-2012

Computational films are made and arranged algorithmically. Composed with still  images they are sequenced to move along ‘scores’ of  probabilities. Unlike traditional short films these ‘films’ have a  quality of a perpetual present, active and vital as there are no recordings, only instructions, computing that bring forth a ‘film’ and sound score

Folder: Computations Archive *and in new one off software

Exhibition: Exhibited at the Thomas Erben Gallery, Chelsea, New York and the Nanofestival, Amsterdam.

Catalogue: Nanofestival

Loops and Iterations, 2004

2 monitor installation, one computational and the other a video loop

Folder: Loops and Iterations, one digital loop, one iterative computation

Exhibition: *need to remember

Documentation: Photos of installation and essay

Variable Montage, 2002

Max Patch with Sound and Image Files

Folder:  Variable Montage in Computations Archive

Exhibition: ZKM, Future Cinema, ICC Tokyo

Catalogue:  ZKM, Future Cinema

For Peter Kubelka, 2001

Computation with film and sound file

Folder: Kubelka in Computations Archive

Exhibition: ZKM, Future Cinema, ICC Tokyo

Catalogue:  ZKM, Future Cinema

History and Disappearance, 2002

In this large image projection 47 still frames play over 30   minutes, gradually moving from representation to abstraction  and disappearance. Here image is not a site of memory but of   erasure.  

Folder: Photography Portfolios, History and Disappearance

Exhibition, San Francisco Art Institute, SOMARTS, San Francisco, 2002

Possibilities of a Beautiful Love, 2002

2 screen video projection installation

Folder: Possibilities of a Beautiful Love Archive

Exhibition: Todd Hosfelt Gallery, 2020

Documentation: Photographs of Installation

In Place of Memory, 2001

6 short abstract videos.

Folder: Films Archive, In Place of Memory

Exhibition, San Francisco Art Institute

Confessions of an Image, 2001

Film made of still images, each 5 seconds with voice over

Folder: Confessions of an Image Archive

Exhibition: Atlantic Center for the Arts, 2002

Documentation: Everyday Cinema

Installations Atlantic Center, 2001

Not Just an Image 2001

Installation, site specific, Zerox machines, projections, 9 monitors, tape recorder, videos, scrims

Folder: Installations Atlantic Center

Exhibition: Atlantic Center for the Arts

Documentation: many photographs of various works made and exhibited during this artist residency.

AmbientMachines, 2000

Interactive Flash Software that allowed people to compose films online from a number of underlying sounds an images

Folder: New Media Works Archive

Documentation: screen shots and films

Exhibition: Node Festival

Suitcase (Exploding Oedipus), 2000

A narrative 35 mm film

Storage: 35 mm film,  Suitcase Paper Movie, 2 hand made artist books

Folder: Suitcase (Exploding Oedipus) Archive

Exhibition: San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Castro Theatre, Seattle Film Festival

Documentation: Booklet, Reviews  *Need updated Transfer, Suitcase Paper Movie, Posters, reviews

Metabolic House, 1999

Online Site

Folder: Metaboic House Archive

Documentation: List of works, screen images

Dreaming Alphabet, 1999

Performance

San Francisco

Documentation: still photographs, The Event of Art

French Pavillon, 1999

Performance, Site Specific Intervention 1999, Venice Biennale

Documentation: still photographs

The Measure of a Man, 1999

Performance Photography

Storage: analogue prints, Photography Archival Box

Folder: New Media Works Archive

Documentation: Image Photograph

HyperDiction 1999

Language as a virus, a contamination, but also a typography,   a visual force, a playground, a place of discovery, of creation: a   metabolic function doing its thing.

Exhibition: Art as Entertainment, Walker Art Center, Catalogue and Geoges Pompidou

Memex Engine or Laura Croft Stripped Bare by her Assassins, Even, 1998

Interactive online game

Folder: Memex Archive

Exhibition: Art as Entertainment, Walker Art Center, Catalogue and Geoges Pompidou, 1999

Catalogue: Arts Entertainment Network, Walker Art Center

HyperHyper, The Unbounded Wor(l)d, 1997

Book Project

Documentation: Blurb book

Memories of Photography Casio Watch Photos, 1996

Made with the Casio watch camera, digital prints, mimicking older black and white photography

Storage: Photography Archival Box, Black and White archive prints on deckled edge paper

Folder: Memories of Photography Watch Series

Art box or Visual Fictions 1996

Note book

Folder: Visual Fictions Archive

Documentation: Metabolic House

Vanndemar Engine, Cyberia, Don’t Go Inside the Machine, 1994

Online graphic, novel-game based on my novella, Cyberia

Folder: Vanndemar Cyberia Archive

Documentation: films, screen shots of interface designs

Naming Conventions

Storage: refers to a physical object and its place.

Folder: the digital place where files of works are.

Archive: a master folder for a series included select works and process documentation.

Portfolio: a collection of work not necessarily formalized as a series.  See Portfolio Series

Documentation, Exhibition: writing, publication, exhibition and reference material