Paul Garrin
Paul Garrin (US) is a video artist and activist.
N5M2: Paul Garrin; photo: Jan Sprij
Paul Garrin began working with video while studying fine arts at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. His works over the past 20 years encompass a full spectrum of analog and digital media from video to the Internet, exploring media and the social impact of technology on society, and issues of media access, free speech, and public/private space.
Since 1989 Garrin has been working with interactive media, and developed three highly acclaimed works, Yuppie Ghetto with Watchdog (1989-90), White Devil (1992-93) and Border Patrol (1994-96).
From 1982-1996 Paul teamed up with Video Art Legend Nam June Paik and emerged as one of Paik's most important collaborators. Garrin's well known documentary of the Tompkins Square Riot (1988) in NYC, shot with a home video camcorder, exposed through the media the willful police violence against demonstrators and bystanders and became known as the spark, which ignited the "camcorder revolution." In 1996 Paul founded the Name.Space project to catalyze the divestiture of the U.S.- sanctioned monopolies that govern the internet and bring new and expressive extensions to the Internet Domain Name System while reforming domain policy, an initiative that continues to this day.
His works have been widely exhibited and broadcast internationally including the Lyon Biennale (1995-96), Kwangju Biennale 1995, Sao Paulo Biennale 1994, Holly Solomon Gallery in New York, Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal, 1997, Galleri Faurschou, Copenhagen, 1997, Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz, 1998, Wilhelm Lembruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany, 1999 and others. He was Artist in Residence at the Berlin Videofest (1990) and has received numerous awards for excellence including Prix Ars Electronica (1997); ZKM Karlsruhe Medienkunstpreis (1992); Special Prize, Bonn Videonale (1988); Prize, Video Shorts, Seattle (1990 & 91); New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (1988); New York State Council on the Arts Media Grant (1990). In 2001 Paul was awarded the Cooper Union's Presidential Alumni Citation for outstanding attainments and contributions to his profession.
source: Paul Garrin's website, 2001
