Body Press

Two concave mirrors surround a man and woman standing back to back. They film each other; but instead of responding to each other, their points of view cross as they swap cameras. Video is more than a medium; it becomes the work’s subject.

This mirrored installation demonstrates that Dan Graham is a key proponent of conceptual art. Body Press disorients viewers and their usual ability to distinguish between identities. They can no longer tell which body part belongs to whom. The American artist runs counter to the camera’s supposed objectivity.

Graham’s installation Body Press, from the Pinault collection, was presented for the first time during the 2008 exhibition “Passage du Temps” (“Passage of Time”) at the Tri Postal in Lille.