Andrew Austin Reilly's site-specific graphite drawing "Untitled (Missed Connection for West Oakland)" (2007) draws from a range of "missed connections" posted on craigslist.com. The full text begins behind the door of the project room and circles the perimeter of the room in a format that could be read continuously.
Through the process of experiencing the work, visitors are presented with views of West Oakland, BART as it speeds by, and a closeted video installation. Executed with an austere formality, the drawing nonetheless conveys the hopeless romanticism evident in the gesture of posting a missed connection. Within the closet, "This Is What You Have Been Waiting For," a single-channel video installation, is paired with "Untitled" (both 2006), a pile of VHS tapes labeled in traditional typewriter font with the catch phrases of quotidian experiences, such as "your proudest moment," in a similar manner that one might have labeled the recording of a winning game or school performance. The sense of nostalgia evoked by the use of bygone media, such a typewriters and VHS tapes, is countered by the bitter repetition of the screenshots and the labels themselves as they challenge the viewer to account for these seemingly memorable moments--reflecting the initial optimism and peculiar trajectory of so many missed connections. (Works courtesy Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco.)
