Dan Graham

Graham’s analysis of the ideologically social function of urban and suburban architectural spaces and the role of television in private and public spaces is featured in this segment of a West German film on contemporary artists. Documentation and illustrations of the concepts and format of several installations are accompanied by Graham’s explanatory narration. In addition, he addresses such phenomena as the decor of fast food restaurants, suburban tract housing, and the infiltration of television into the suburban dynamic. For example, in discussing “Video View of Suburbia in an Urban Atrium” (1980), an installation in New York’s Citicorp building, he states: “Citicorp’s atrium suggests suburban arcadia in the midst of the city. If the atrium’s design represents urban fantasy of the picturesque brought to the city center, the image on the monitors represents the actual suburb on the edge of the city.” (SR-KA)