Jennifer & Kevin McCoy
Encyclopedia
Jennifer and Kevin McCoy are a Brooklyn
, New York
-based married couple who make art together. They work with interactive media, film, performance and installation to explore personal experience in relation with new technology, the mass media, and global commerce. They often re-examine classic genres and works of cinema, science fiction or television narrative, creating sculptural objects, net art, robotic movies or live performance. They were awarded a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship
.
The McCoys are well-known for their database pieces, in which they break down a series of films or TV shows into individual shots, and categorise them according to a classification schema of their own making. For example, the piece 'Every Shot Every Episode' (2001) was a collection of 10,000 shots from the Starsky and Hutch
television series that were categorised according to 278 categories such as 'every plaid', 'every sexy outfit', 'every yellow Volkswagen'. Shots relating to each category were then burned to video CD and installed on a shelf in the gallery along with a small, specially designed video player.
In 2004, the dormant Saarinen-designed
TWA Flight Center (now Jetblue Terminal 5)
at JFK Airport
briefly hosted an art exhibition called Terminal 5
curated by Rachel K. Ward and featuring the work of 18 artists including Jennifer & Kevin McCoy. The show featured work, lectures and temporary installations drawing inspiration from the idea of travel — and the terminal's architecture. The show was to run from October 1, 2004 to January 31, 2005 — though it closed abruptly after the building itself was vandalized during the opening party.
More recently, the McCoys have been creating works that use miniature dioramas similar to model railroads or dolls' houses. Live video cameras are embedded in each diorama, capturing the miniature figures and landscapes from various angles. The resulting video feeds are then sequenced by special computer software which acts as the film editor, creating a real-time animated film sequence to be projected on the gallery wall. In 'Soft Rains' (2003), the McCoys recreated archetypal scenes from cinema in this miniature form, making references to films such as Goldfinger
, Friday the 13th, and Blue Velvet. The 'Traffic' series (2004) were recreations of moments from the artists' personal histories when they had a particular memory of viewing specific films. For example, Traffic #1: Our Second Date recreates the McCoys' second date when they went to see a film by Jean-Luc Godard
at a cinema in Paris
.
in Troy, New York
where they both received their MFA in Electronic Art
, studying in part under Pauline Oliveros
.
Articles about their work have appeared in Art in America
, Artforum
,
The Wire
, dArt International, Spin Magazine, Feed
, and The Independent
. They won a Wired Magazine Rave Award, in the Art Category for 2005. Their work is held in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA
, and Mudam
. A number of individual collectors also own their work, including actor Bill Paxton.
The McCoys were involved in academic programs at MoMA. They live and work in Brooklyn
, New York
.
Airworld (1999)
Small Appliances (1997)
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
-based married couple who make art together. They work with interactive media, film, performance and installation to explore personal experience in relation with new technology, the mass media, and global commerce. They often re-examine classic genres and works of cinema, science fiction or television narrative, creating sculptural objects, net art, robotic movies or live performance. They were awarded a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
.
Artwork
In 1999, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy undertook the "World Views" residency programme on the World Trade Center's 91st floor. From this residency, the artists developed a series of interventions into global capitalism. For example, the McCoys created web-based banner ads satirizing corporate aesthetics and jargon. The artists then used the Doubleclick.com network to distribute 1 million of these banner ads over one month, from mid-August to mid-September 1999. Doubleclick.com, which sponsored the project, did not inform sites on which the ads were displayed that they were playing host to an artistic intervention.The McCoys are well-known for their database pieces, in which they break down a series of films or TV shows into individual shots, and categorise them according to a classification schema of their own making. For example, the piece 'Every Shot Every Episode' (2001) was a collection of 10,000 shots from the Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s American cop thriller television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30, 1975 and May 15, 1979 on the ABC...
television series that were categorised according to 278 categories such as 'every plaid', 'every sexy outfit', 'every yellow Volkswagen'. Shots relating to each category were then burned to video CD and installed on a shelf in the gallery along with a small, specially designed video player.
In 2004, the dormant Saarinen-designed
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
TWA Flight Center (now Jetblue Terminal 5)
TWA Flight Center
The TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight Center, opened in 1962 as a standalone terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport .for Trans World Airlines...
at JFK Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...
briefly hosted an art exhibition called Terminal 5
Terminal 5 (exhibition)
Terminal 5 was an art exhibition that took place in October 2004 at the then disused Eero Saarinen–designed TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport....
curated by Rachel K. Ward and featuring the work of 18 artists including Jennifer & Kevin McCoy. The show featured work, lectures and temporary installations drawing inspiration from the idea of travel — and the terminal's architecture. The show was to run from October 1, 2004 to January 31, 2005 — though it closed abruptly after the building itself was vandalized during the opening party.
More recently, the McCoys have been creating works that use miniature dioramas similar to model railroads or dolls' houses. Live video cameras are embedded in each diorama, capturing the miniature figures and landscapes from various angles. The resulting video feeds are then sequenced by special computer software which acts as the film editor, creating a real-time animated film sequence to be projected on the gallery wall. In 'Soft Rains' (2003), the McCoys recreated archetypal scenes from cinema in this miniature form, making references to films such as Goldfinger
Goldfinger (film)
Goldfinger is the third spy film in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1964, it is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title...
, Friday the 13th, and Blue Velvet. The 'Traffic' series (2004) were recreations of moments from the artists' personal histories when they had a particular memory of viewing specific films. For example, Traffic #1: Our Second Date recreates the McCoys' second date when they went to see a film by Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
at a cinema in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Biography
The McCoys met in Paris in 1990. They subsequently studied together at Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
in Troy, New York
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
where they both received their MFA in Electronic Art
Electronic art
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music...
, studying in part under Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
.
Articles about their work have appeared in Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, Artforum
Artforum
Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
,
The Wire
The Wire (magazine)
The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
, dArt International, Spin Magazine, Feed
Feed
Feed may refer to:In animal foodstuffs:* Compound feed, feedstuffs that are blended from various raw materials and additives* Fodder , any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestockIn computing:...
, and The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
. They won a Wired Magazine Rave Award, in the Art Category for 2005. Their work is held in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
, and Mudam
Mudam
The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art , abbreviated to Mudam, is a museum of modern art in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The museum stands on the site of the old Fort Thüngen, in the Kirchberg quarter, in the north-east of the city....
. A number of individual collectors also own their work, including actor Bill Paxton.
The McCoys were involved in academic programs at MoMA. They live and work in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Notable works
Soft Rains (2003)- A series of archetypal cinema scenes recreated in a series of miniature tableaux. Dozens of live video cameras are trained on the dioramas from a variety of angles. Custom computer software sequences the live feeds into an endlessly repeating vignette, presented as projection on the gallery wall. The system functions as a computer controlled soundstage that produces animated films in the gallery in real time.
Airworld (1999)
- Explores the interconnections between airports, and the convergence of travel and everyday life, especially the dissolution of the barriers between personal life, professional life, personal space and community space.
Small Appliances (1997)
- Ten short video narratives based around women's experiences with technology. Video and CD-Rom based artwork intended for exposition on the internet and in galleries.
Awards
- 2001 Finishing Funds Grant, Experimental Television CenterExperimental Television CenterThe Experimental Television Center is a one of a kind video art production studio in Owego, New York. Since its foundation in 1971, the center has been instrumental to the field of video art by providing artists with the tools of video art production through artist residencies and grants...
, Owego, NY
- 2001 New Media Art Fellowship, Colbert Foundation, New York, NY
- 2000 Net Art Commission/Residency, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
- 1999 New York Foundation for the Arts Computer Arts Grant recipient, New York, NY
- 1999 "World Views" Thundergulch Artist in Residence, New York, NY
- 1999 "Emerging Artist/Emergent Media" Grant recipient presented by the Jerome Foundation through the Walker Art CenterWalker Art CenterThe Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis, MN
- 1999 HarvestWorks Artist in Residence, New York, NY.
External links
- McCoy Space
- Postmasters Gallery
- "Our Work in 4 Ltrs. (or less)" Jennifer & Kevin McCoy use small words to describe their collaboration. March 6, 2002