the destroyer > art > H I X X Collective
Untitled (Get Yo Griffith On)
series of animated .gifs
duration variable
2014
Untitled (Get Yo Griffith On) is a series of animated .gifs depicting title cards commandeered from D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. Each frame has been altered, redacting Griffith’s signature and watermark in order to paradoxically disregard and underscore authorship. Subverting the narrative structure, the infinite loop .gifs are taken out context to reform the problematic ideology of the film. Transforming the text from Griffith’s epic into internet ephemera, Untitled (Get Yo Griffith On) tampers with the filmic grammar and cinematic legacy by inverting the art historical document into a decontextualized series of animated .gifs.
E L V I S L I V E S
sound, 7-inch record
4-minutes, 36-seconds
2012
Appropriated from one of the greatest appropriators in American popular culture, E L V I S L I V E S is a sound piece and 45-RPG 7-inch record consisting of all Elvis Presley’s 30 #1 singles compiled into one track. Each song has been obtained illegally through online file-sharing, disregarding copyright and recontextualizing nostalgia into nuisance. Through the willful misuse of culture, E L V I S L I V E S exhausts the limits of entertainment, recognition and timelessness.
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Founded by Rachel Crist and Daedalus Hoffman, H I X X is a project-based collective critically surveying the culturescape of the contemporary American South. Unbound by media, H I X X tampers with and tweaks the identity politics surrounding southernness. Emerging in 2013 from Austin, Texas, H I X X was featured in the TX★13 Biennial and Aurora Dallas Contemporary Art Festival. In 2014, H I X X was selected for The Contemporary Austin’s inaugural Crit Group, a professional development program for Austin-based emerging artists. H I X X Collective’s work has been highlighted in publications such as Art in America, ARTINFO and The Creators Project.
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