Official Welcome

Official Welcome begins as a thankyou speech by an artist at an event organized in her honor After the initial Thanks however the Artists position changes from speaking about her supportersto speaking as her supporters about herself She continues as eight different pairs of Artists and supporters with a script based on artists interviews patron profiles critics essays and curators speeches Official Welcome attempts to engage the contradictory desire of artists tobe loved and admired even as we critique and transgress It catalogs the play of bad faith and sincerity cynicism and commitment denial and ambivalence that haunt the rituals of recognition of human accomplishment in the arts Commissioned by and first performed in 2001 at the MICA foundation in New York this DVD documents Frasers opening performance at her midcareer survey at the Kunstverein in Hamburg