Ligorano & Reese: Happy Hour

January 11 - April 29, 2006

From January 11 through April 29, 2006, the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art ( ICA) will showcase Happy Hour, an installation by the collaborative team of Ligorano & Reese in the gallery’s Market Street window. Happy Hour is part of the ICA’s installation series “Night Moves,” providing after-dark programming in the gallery’s front and rear windows, giving the ICA a nighttime presence while animating the downtown cultural landscape.

Created by New York-based collaborators Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Happy Hour is an open narrative. It consists of two video sculptures in the form of clocks. The clock faces portray a man and a woman laughing uncontrollably and on the verge of tears. Why are they laughing? Are they laughing at each other? Are they laughing at us? Why does sorrow sound like laughter, and laughter like lunacy? The vintage style of the neon clocks suggests an idealized era. Yet, a clock marks the continuum of time and perhaps, now, hysteria is the image of our time.

Image: Ligorano & Reese, installation view of Happy Hour, 2005