Cross Reference

Bill Beirne, Cross Reference, 1976, two-channel video installation, color, sound; 32:00 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Gene Davis Memorial Fund, 2015.6.2, © 1976, Bill Beirne

Artwork Details

Title: Cross Reference
Artist: Bill Beirne
Date: 1976
Location: Not on view
Copyright: © 1976, Bill Beirne
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Gene Davis Memorial Fund
Mediums: video
Mediums Description: two-channel video installation, color, sound; 32:00 minutes
Classifications: Media Arts
Subjects: Object — furniture — television
Object Number: 2015.6.2
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2015.6.2

Artwork Description

Cross Reference, which directly confronts systems of surveillance and power, was produced as a live performance simultaneously broadcast on two public-access television stations in New York City. Beirne directed two camera operators to film the street from separate vantage points in their respective studios. They chose their subjects at will and communicated with one another by walkie-talkie (Channel C and Channel D). As the camera man described the physical appearances of unknowing passers-by, Beine located them on the street and assumed their personal attributes in an attempt to infiltrate the system. His street performance echoes the subjective nature of surveillance and its limitations in cataloguing either public space or an individual’s presence in it.

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