* 1979 in Philadelphia, US, lives and works in New York, US
Produced using open-source face-substitution software, Crying Games features a cast of actors playing Tony Blair, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, political figures whose ideas, policies, and military campaigns defined the 2000s—the violent repercussions of which continue to echo through our own time. In the video the actors’ faces are digitally replaced with the political figures’ faces, allowing Kline to put words in their mouths and emotions in their eyes. Harnessing this new technology, Kline attempts to turn historical revisionism—a mainstay of American politics and mass communication—into a critical tool.
List of works
Crying Games, 2015
Lightbox display, plexiglas, LEDs and power supply, flat-screen TV, media player and wood; HD video, color, sound, 11’51”
Featuring (in order of appearance) Brian Patrick Mulligan as Dick Cheney, Michelle Marshall as Condoleezza Rice, Brent Mendenhall as George W. Bush, Joseph Rose as Donald Rumsfeld, Michael Grew as Tony Blair
Producer and Casting Eliza Ryan
Director of Photography and Lighting Blake Buesnel
Sound Recording Dave Schachter
Costumes, Props, Styling and Makeup Emily Schubert
Editor Josh Kline
Assistant Editors Mengyin Lin, Blake Buesnel
Production Assistant Mengyin Lin
Audio Engineer Jeremy Cox
Visual Effects and Compositing Jan Tompkins-Jackson
Animation Jonathan Turner
Postproduction Consultant Dina Chang
Encoding ADi Audiovisual, Chemistry Creative
Customized open-source software based on experiments by Arturo Castro/Kyle McDonald with real-time face substitution
Lightbox Design Gordon Millsaps
Lightbox Fabricator interzone GmbH & Co. KG
Thanks to Chemistry Creative, Matthew Patterson Curry, Nathan Townes-Anderson, Pete Sax, Besser Entertainment, Margaret Lee, Oliver Newton, Blair Neal, Walsh Hansen, Paul Teigh, Seb Thomas, Kevin Reuning
Mission Accomplished, 2016
Cat litter
Dimensions variable
All works Courtesy Josh Kline; 47 Canal, New York
Installation coproduced by Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art
In-kind support from www.silikalzit.com
