November 15 - December 31, 2006

Sami Ben Larbi    Are We There Yet?

Main Space

An event was staged in Seattle in May 2006 with four participants. The participants were chosen on the condition that they not know or meet the other prior to the event. They rode in two rented Lincoln Towncars on the highways of Seattle. In each car the participants (driver and passenger) each wore a video camera mounted on their head and a lapel microphone. As they rode the highways Ben Larbi recorded their conversations; conversations about themselves, their interests, events that occurred to them and other subjects. The participants were directed not to mention each other by name and not to look at each other.

For the installation Are We There Yet? four ten feet square rooms will be constructed in the dimly lit Main Space of Lawrimore Project.  Each room will present audio and video from Ben Larbi’s staged event.  In each room the audio and video of each participant will be presented via projectors and speakers.  While the looped video will be shown unaltered, the audio has been edited so that only the voice of that participant is heard, resulting in a one sided conversation.  When standing in one room the voices coming from the speakers in the other rooms are barely heard, creating a distant rumble, akin to highway noises.

In the White Cube

Paintings with Audio + New Prints

Shown in the white cube is a suite of prints and a painting with audio that relate to the body of work shown in the main space.  The main piece is comprised of four individual “paintings” that are actually prints of paintings made from the video footage that Ben Larbi shot while riding on the four main highways in the Seattle area. They are accompanied by four mp3 players that playback audio which are excerpts from Ben Larbi’s conversations with the passengers he rode with while on these car rides.  Larger individual prints of each highway will be shown alongside the work.

More about the artist’s work