"Multiple Personalities" opened thursday (Dec.6, 01) at Haines Gallery
in San Francisco. The exhibition, which included physical works and
internet based projects, received a lot of attention on Rhizome Raw.

So how was the actual show? Was it any different to view the internet
based work in a gallery?

The internet based projects (available online at
http://www.hainesgallery.com/) were displayed on a laptop placed
casually on the side counter-top of the front desk. The internet based
projects came from Michael Daines, Valery Grancher, Mario Hergueta,
Peter Luining, Michamel Mandiberg, MTAA and John Simon Jr.

Browsing the artworks had a similar feel to looking at them at home.
However, having other people present while you are looking at the work
did change the experience - it offered the opportunity to more easily
image the work as filtered through someone else's mind - however - it
also made the experience feel less private - maybe less personal?

The biggest difference, though, was to see the other works in the
gallery and to think of them in relation to the internet based works.
How did it all work together as a curatorial idea? What is revealed
about the non-internet works by the online projects? And what do we
learn about the body of Michael Daines when it is displayed next to
someone else's body of work? Seeing the jpeg again, I thought of Robert
Rauschenberg's photos of Cy Twombly on the stairs in Rome, with his head
out of frame (Cy + Roman Steps, 1952). I thought of Tina La Porta's
online work. And then I thought again of the actual work in the room.

Away from the front desk, the L-shaped gallery showed videos,
sculptures, drawings and paintings. In a small room towards the back,
stacks of vintage posters and publications of past shows by the artists
in the show (and others?) were arranged on the floor and walls, in a way
that was both a book-sale and an arranged room.

http://www.hainesgallery.com/in_floorplan.html

The opening was upbeat, with a several hundred people making their way
to the fifth floor of the 49 Geary gallery complex. Since all of the
galleries open on the dame day, the complex shared visitors between
galleries. At Haines, a DJ played a St.Germain styled set. Visitors
seemed to be having a good time.

I spoke briefly with the curator of the show, Amy Davila, who said that
she enjoyed the exchange that occurred on Rhizome, and felt excited,
challenged and intrigued by the posts, counter-posts and hoax-posts.

She, of course, had joined the discussion as well, posting several times
to the list.

http://rhizome.org/archive/raw/msg01244.rhiz
http://rhizome.org/archive/raw/msg01262.rhiz

Did the exhibition break any new ground in showing internet based work
in a gallery setting? No, internet works have been displayed in a
similar way in galleries before.

However, the show was interesting. The curator's choice of including
internet based works because they matched her curatorial and
intellectual ideas - rather than showing them as a type of novelty or
specialty, came across as natural and unforced.