John & Yoko & Joseph & Susan

Jan 2, 2008 at 4:00 am

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If you could construct a Venn diagram of social consciousness and celebrity, the shaded intersection might look very much like Kota Ezawa's new media artwork Lennon Sontag Beuys. Ezawa crafted a video loop that combines footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's sleep-in for peace, Susan Sontag lecturing on photography's potential to spur a "moral awakening," and Joseph Beuys discussing art as a form of social sculpture, all painstakingly redrawn frame by frame by Ezawa. Ezawa's stylized animation imparts a cool minimalism that hints at ultra-chic commercial art (think "iPod commercial") while addressing directly the interstices of art, commerce, image and substance. Lennon Sontag Beuys, the new installment of the New Media Series at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park (314-721-0072 or www.slam.org) is on display in Gallery 301 through Sunday, April 20.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Jan. 11. Continues through April 20, 2008