Face+in+the+Crowd

Date: 2013
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/2016/2016.29.1_1a.jpg?itok=1Yt8gO64 width="353" height="200" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/face-in-the-crowd-110667"]] || Title: **Face in the Crowd**

Artist: **Alex Prager** Born: Los Angeles, California 1979

Artist: **Ali Helnwein (Sound)**

Medium: three-channel video installation, color, sound; 11:52 minutes Smithsonian American Art Museum Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment © 2013, Alex Prager

Accession: 2016.29.1 ||
 * About the Artwork: **

Alex Prager draws inspiration from the rich color photography of William Eggleston and the Southern California moviemaking industry. Her studio mirrors that of large-scale film productions, resulting in the works that project a distinctive Hollywood aesthetic. Littered with parodied clichés of popular cinema and renderings of narrative tension, anxiety, and suspense, //Face in the Crowd// traces a spectrum of concerns: a fear of crowds and the desire to stand out among them; voyeurism and exhibitionism; the spectator's gaze; and the inability to live up to expectations. This work showcases the anxiety of being swept up by the masses while trying to create and maintain a sense of self--conditions long present in the physical world--amplified in the virtual spaces we inhabit today.
 * Gallery Label: **

Crowd #5 (Washington Square West) - this work is part of a larger group
 * See Also: **

Alex Prager's website Face in the Crowd: Preview Face in the Crowd: Behind the Scenes Alex Prager: Crowd Control - Nowness Alex Prager's Nob to the Golden Era of Film - American Photo Movie Geometry - Shaping the Way We Think - Now You See It YouTube Video
 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page Face in the Crowd Preview
 * Links: **