THE PARTY

Single screen video installation

Video, bar & props

Duration : 25 minutes

In this video installation Starr plays Liz, a party desparado, who throughout a day and night prepares to throw the ultimate party. As it eventually becomes clear that none of the guests are going to arrive, Liz becomes more outlandish in a bid to save herself from boredom, and to prove she can still have a good time. Unabashed, Liz talks to imaginary guests, eats the party food, makes and drinks elaborate cocktails and dances in her sparkely dress. But by the end of the piece Liz is revealed as a lonely figure, stripped of her enthusiasm to have a good time, she dances a slow dance alone.

For the installation the video is installed in the bar Liz has constructed.

As with many of Starr's video works (Hypnodreamdruff (1996) , Visit to a Small Planet (1995), Theda (2006)) the ephemeral structures of social communication are completely stripped away so that she can use the remaining material to create a model scenario for conversations with herself.

Exhibition history for The Party:

The Party, Bloom Gallery, Amsterdam, 1995

Electronic Undercurrents, Staten Museum for Kunst,Copenhagan, 1996

Hypertronix, Espace d'art Castellon, Spain, 1999

Il Dono, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy, 2001

Music and Art: Rock, Pop and Techno, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, 2001