Paul Pfeiffer may be familiar to art enthusiasts, particularly those who attended the On The Wall exhibition between 2018 and 2019.
An American sculptor, photographer, and video artist, Pfeiffer deconstructs the visual language of pop culture to examine how media shapes our perceptions of the world and ourselves. His work spans video, photography, sculpture, and sound, often focusing on mass-audience moments—live sports events, stadium concerts, televised game shows, and celebrity imagery. By meticulously sampling and re-editing these spectacles, Pfeiffer exposes an unsettling emptiness beneath their glossy surfaces. His techniques include photo retouching, digital erasure, and endless video loops, highlighting the surreal aspects of modern life where bodies are sites of voyeuristic fascination, and violence-as-entertainment intersects with nationalism, religion, and myth.
Pfeiffer’s exhibitions often juxtapose immersive audiovisual installations with portable fetish-like objects, blurring the line between voyeurism and contemplation. His work seeks to amplify the viewer’s existential condition as a consumer, drawing attention to the complex interplay between observation and reflection.
Michael Jackson: A Central Figure in Pfeiffer’s Work
In 2018, the Zabludowicz Collection loaned three works from Pfeiffer’s Live Evil series to the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Michael Jackson: On the Wall. This exhibition, which featured over 40 artists spanning generations, explored the lasting impact of Michael Jackson on contemporary art.
Pfeiffer’s Live Evil (Bucharest), Live Evil (Auckland), and Live Evil (Copenhagen) exemplify his method of digitally reconstructing and distorting imagery. These works transform footage of Michael Jackson’s dance routines into writhing, Rorschach-like abstractions, altering Jackson’s body to explore themes of race, identity, and alienation. As Pfeiffer explains, he is less interested in the personalities of iconic figures like Jackson than in the “aura” surrounding them. By manipulating Michael Jackson’s image—erasing, mirroring, refracting, and looping—he intensifies this aura, making it the focal point of his work. In Live Evil, Michael Jackson’s body becomes an abstracted, skeletal form, while the shimmering costumes highlight the spectacle of collective spectatorship, shielding the physical body itself from view.
This work will be on display at the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, alongside other pieces exploring Pfeiffer’s unique artistic vision.
Additional Works Featuring Michael Jackson
Another notable Pfeiffer piece, Live from Neverland (2006), features 80 men and women reciting in perfect unison a statement Jackson originally broadcast in 1982. The resulting sound oscillates between the intimacy of an individual voice and the collective roar of a crowd, reflecting Pfeiffer’s exploration of media-driven spectacle and identity.
Current Exhibition: Paul Pfeiffer’s Legacy
Pfeiffer’s influence is celebrated in the exhibition Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, on view until March 16, 2025 at the Guggenheim Bilbao. This exhibition continues to explore Pfeiffer’s profound engagement with themes of identity, media, and the collective experience, cementing his role as a critical voice in contemporary art.
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