David Horvitz (born 1982) is an American artist who uses

art books Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, and

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence Scho ...

as media for his work. He is known for his work in the virtual sphere. Horvitz is a graduate from

Bard College Bard College is a private liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic District—a National Historic Landmark. Founded in 1860, ...

Career

Horvitz uses

, watercolor, and

as mediums for his work. The 1970s conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader has been an important influence on Horvitz's art. Horvitz's movie “Rarely Seen Bas Jan Ader Film”, for example, shows a silent black and white clip a few seconds long of a man riding a bicycle into the sea. This evokes the imagery of Ader's works around the theme of falling and the myth surrounding Ader's disappearance at sea.Sarah-Neel Smith “David Horvitz in Chinatown”, Artslant Los Angeles, 27 July 2009
/ref> Horvitz's book “Sad, Depressed People” relates back to Ader's movie “I'm too sad to tell you” in that all of the stock images Horvitz collected show people with their heads in their hands, as does Ader.Rachel Peddersen “In conversation with David Horvitz”, Andreview, Fall & Winter 2013
/ref> Another influence on Horvitz's work is

On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in New York City from 1965. He took part in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976. Early life Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on December 24, 1932. After graduating fro ...

. As David put it “I relate to On Kawara’s work because of its

existential Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

and even

zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

readings.” In 2009, Horvitz started the “241543903/Head-in-a-Freezer” meme. People were encouraged to take a picture of their heads in a freezer and upload the image with the tag “241543903”. That way everyone could see each other's images by Googling “241543903”. The meme first gained popularity on

Orkut Orkut was a social networking service owned and operated by Google. The service was designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships. The website was named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkök ...

, Google's social network in Brazil. Horvitz spread the word by sending 100 fliers to a friend in Brazil who handed them out to random young people. It is a rare case where an internet meme was spread through IRL means. In 2013, he created ''The Distance of a Day'' (two digital videos, 12 minutes each), an installation showing sunset and sunrise from opposite points on the globe, near Los Angeles and in the Maldives respectively, recorded at the same moment. The sunset and sunrise were shown side by side on the actual phones (two iPhones) that recorded the scenes. The installation was exhibited at the

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...

fair in June 2013. On July 18, 2013, as part of an online one-day project named ''Artist Breakfast'', he "invited artists all over the world to share photos and short descriptions of their morning meals with online audiences throughout the day." Horvitz's ''Gnomons'' was exhibited at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

in 2014, featuring four works based on the concept of time. The final work was a performance piece titled ''Let us Keep our Own Noon'', where volunteers rang brass bells in the streets around the museum at

solar noon Noon (or midday) is 12 o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for meridiem, literally 12:00 noon), 12 p.m. (for post meridiem, literally "after noon"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24-hour clock) or 1200 ( military time). Sola ...

and then walked away from each other until they could not hear other bells. The piece was performed again in 2016 for the 10th anniversary of “Sequences”,

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

's biennial festival of “real time art”. Oliver Basciano “How to throw an Icelandic birthday party”, ArtReview
/ref> His work also includes ''"A Wikipedia Reader"'', a mind map of artists' browsing of Wikipedia. His work ''Public Access'' (2010) includes photographs of himself at various public beaches in California which were uploaded to the

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

and then inserted into the Wikipedia pages, and the subsequent reaction of the Commons and Wikipedia communities to his actions. These actions included criticism of the quality and artistry of the images, suspicion of the uploader's motives, and deletion of most of the images and/or removal of himself from the images. ''Public Access'' is "the piece for which he is most well known" and is one of his projects which existed "only for a short time." Before all items were deleted, Horvitz printed them out, bound them and covertly placed the bound books in the history sections of local libraries along the California Coast. In 2014, his ''"somewhere in between the jurisdiction of time"'' was displayed at

Blum & Poe Blum & Poe is a contemporary art gallery located in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. Development Blum & Poe was founded by Tim Blum and Jeff Poe in Santa Monica, California, in September 1994. The inaugural exhibition in Santa Monica feature ...

, featuring water collected from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

between the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

and

Alaska Time Zone The Alaska Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting nine hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−09:00). During daylight saving time its time offset is eight hours ( UTC−08:00). The clock time in this zone is based on mean solar ...

s kept in handmade glass bottles and shown in a straight North/South line. Andrew Berardini described the work as creating "some weird uncrossable divide...The mere suggestion of a demarcation forces our moves". In 2016, David Horvitz hired a

pickpocket Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A th ...

to place sculptures in the pockets of attendees of the annual

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Frieze London takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. In the US, the fair ran on New York's Randall's Island from 2012–19 and in 2 ...

. This was part of “Frieze Projects” a program of 6 commissioned interactive activities at the fair. Said Horvitz, “Imagine how much money is concentrated there, among collectors and galleries—and then there’s this person walking around who’s basically a trained thief,” His published work includes: ''

Xiu Xiu Xiu Xiu ( ) is an American experimental band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of Stewart (the only constant member since formation) and Angela Seo. The band's name co ...

: The Polaroid Project'' (2007), ''Everything that can happen in a day'' (2010), and ''Sad, Depressed, People'' (2012). He has exhibited at SF Camerawork, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

, and Art Metropole.

Selected publications

* ''Mood Disorder.'' Los Angeles: No Documents. 2015. * ''Stolen Spoons.'' Copenhagen: Pork Salad Press. 2015. * ''How To Shoplift Books.'' Portland: Publication Studio. 2014. * ''Public Access.'' Berlin: Motho. 2012. * ''Sad. Depressed. People.'' Los Angeles: No Documents. 2012.

Career

Selected publications

Notes

References

Further reading