Desiderata Series
Paul Pfeiffer manipulates televised footage from The Price is Right, the longest running game show in American history, having debuted in 1972. Digitally erasing the show’s host, prizes, and other narrative trappings, Pfeiffer hones in on the facial expressions and body language of the game show’s contestants, elucidating their shared human vulnerability.
L’Officiel Art - April 2018 (Yamina Benaï)
Q: You keep growing your set « Desiderata », started in 2004, with many other additional works : how is this set evolving over this period of time and in relation to the changing of society’s context?
A: This is the first time since 2004 that I am revisiting the American game show The Price Is Right. No other syndicated game show has been on the air continuously for so long -- first aired in the early 50s, then relaunched in 1972 and continuing into the present. Today and into the future, daily, brand new, hour-long episodes are broadcast in the US five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. It's an ongoing part of television history, therefor of special aesthetic interest to a moving image-maker like me. In a way, the show tracks the development of the aesthetics of consumerism as a planned, social program. It also tracks nostalgia as an increasingly central part of contemporary historical consciousness.