Galifianakis Inspires More Funner Projects with "A Fern in Between: Conversations with Video"

There is a tiny little space on the Buena Vista Building's first floor that was just begging for someone to plug it full of funny art work. When artist Justin Long of More Funner Projects exhibited in the Bas Fisher Invitational's "Weird Miami," he saw it as an opportunity to use a...

By Liz Tracy

May 13, 2011

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There is a tiny little space on the Buena Vista Building's first floor that was just begging for someone to plug it full of funny art work.

When artist Justin Long of More Funner Projects exhibited in the Bas Fisher Invitational's "Weird Miami," he saw it as an opportunity to use a smaller location. "I saw the spaces and thought it's be neat to run a series of shows out of them." They said sure. So small space it is. For this month's art walk, More Funner is filling the tiny space with art inspired by Zach Galifianakis's classic web series "Between Two Ferns."

"A Fern In Between: Conversations with Video" opens this Saturday at the little corner in the Design District. Its name and concept is based on Galifianakis's series, but this time, there is only one fern. Long got the idea of two videos taking to each other in a talk show setting. After all, Galifianakis's show is goofy, nothing gets done, it goes nowhere, you just get to laugh and feel uncomfortable. Plus, Long said, "I wanted to try to use the space for what it was" -- only two walls and two windows.

More Funner Projects' first show in the Buena Vista Building "Debut Miami Exhibition: Entitled, #UNTITLED_POLYPTYCH (and: Drink All Day, Play All Night, Let's Get it Poppin')" had a sound element to it. The glass was used as speakers, and it worked well on the windows.

Long told us, "I wanted to expand on that and have two videos in conversation with each other." Think chatting TVs in a talk show setting. He recognizes that's it ridiculous, "you can't really have a conversation with two video pieces." All this awkwardness would make Galifianakis proud.

Long didn't have access to anyone making videos dealing with conversation, so he asked Los Angeles based Annie Wharton to curate the show, and she brought in works by L.A. and Paris-based Skip Arnold and the Berlin-based Dafna Maimon.

In Maimon's video Like Seitlax, four young Finnish men will be speaking only in direct quotations by such existentialists as Sartre and Nietzsche. Maimon's guys will be in mock conversation with Arnold's video, Girls in Bikinies in which the gun-totting performance artist yells "Girls in bikinis, getting f---ed all day!" Sounds eerily similar to some awkward exchanges we've recently had.

Long believes that "smaller spaces bring new blood into Miami without having a giant space or big budget" like, "fresh ideas at a low cost." In this case, the show is funny, "It's going to be a new take on showing video using a small space in a very strange way."

Long and Robert "Meatball" Lorie work on More Funner Projects at the Little River Yacht Club art space where he says they have the opportunity to show "interactive things that didn't really have a place in galleries" and "that museums wouldn't quite take a risk on." The work is dangerous and funny.

In case you're wondering, yes, there will be a fern that was either bought at Home Depot or grown in Long's parents' backyard. And yes, it will placed in between.

The exhibition opens on Saturday with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m. and runs through June 5 in the Buena Vista Building (180 NE 39 Street, Miami).

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Liz Tracy is a culture and health journalist whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Glamour, and Vox. Previously, she served as New Times Broward-Palm Beach's music editor for three years. Wherever she goes, she brings a little bit of Miami with her.

Contact: Liz Tracy

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