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Transcript
Marilee Talkington: A multimedia installation almost 9 feet in diameter is set on the floor in an interstitial corner near a freight elevator between the fifth and sixth levels of the Guggenheim Museum’s rotunda. The work is titled "Untitled (Media Lab)" by artist Sarah Sze, made in 1998.

In this first work to include video by Sze, scenes like tussling couples, a dog chasing its own tail, and a dancing figure are projected onto a splattering of physical objects culled from everyday life.

In the pile of readymade objects are noteworthy figures:

First, a barrage of objects that seem to be precariously stacked, purposely haphazardly, on top of a small square furniture dolly. The dolly is blond, unstained pinewood, with beige carpeting lining its top surface. The artist has said that the dolly allows the work to be “vagabond, and become site-specific wherever it goes.” The objects on the dolly include odds and ends like pens, matches, tissue packages, pins, bottle caps, Domino Sugar packets, lightbulbs, pills, screws, dice, and a single green fern frond.

Next, an illuminated red task lamp. The red task lamp has a metallic base, a long curved cane neck, and a cylindrical shade flaring outward. The lamp is placed close to the wall, casting onto it a warm-yellow burst.

Next, is a clear plastic water bottle with an “Evian” brand label. It is sealed and contains water.

Next, perched on a low stand is a black square-shaped projector. Cords are plugged into the side of the projector and trail down to the floor.

Next, a tall, thin metallic lamp, with a cantilevered neck and a small upside-down bowl-shaped shade at one end. On the other end of the cantilever, a yellow power cord is coiled around a counterweight. This short arm appears to balance on the long neck of the lamp, which is a sleek perpendicular support leading down to the lamp’s base. The lamp is not illuminated.

Next, a long-necked metallic desk lamp, perhaps seeming to weep. Its cup-shaped shade resting facedown on the floor on which it stands has white light escapes between the crevices of the shade and the floor.

Next, a short and sturdy red three-step ladder, about 2 feet tall, covered in everyday objects, including scissors, Polaroids, a box of film slides, and a roll of blue painter’s tape, like an ecosystem of tools.

Next, an orange tripod topped with a white projector.

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