In ISCP’s Instagram Live Artists at Work, resident James Beckett will walk us through his current research in New York on the history and broader cultural implications of air conditioning. This research was sparked by the fact that ISCP is known as the first building worldwide to be truly air conditioned back in 1902, when it was a printing house.

Tune into the Instagram Live here.

Read a New York Times article on ISCP’s air conditioning history here.

James Beckett’s work in diverse media examines subjects of a historical nature, from the development (and subsequent demise) of European industry, to the more metaphysical aspects of dowsing and voodoo. His constructions favor an obscure and rambling logic, often within a strict formalism reflecting the mechanisms of display. A sometimes-dubious approach to his subject matter entertains the historic as suspended in a state of constant re-interpretation, a portrayal of a world where anomaly and change are fundamentals. Beckett has exhibited work at Belgian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale; MAAT, Lisbon; MCAD Manila – Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, among others.

This program is supported, in part, by Hartfield Foundation; Mondriaan Fund; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); and William Talbott Hillman Foundation.