++++ Gerard Byrne is an artist working in Dublin and New York. Recent exhibitions include ‘New Settlements’, Center Nikolaj, Copenhagen, ‘In the news’, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, and ‘How things turn out’, I.M.M.A., as well as an artist’s contribution to the 100th issue of the journal ‘October’.

++++ WHY IT’S TIME FOR IMPERIAL... AGAIN, 1999 In 1980 the National Geographic Magazine published an advert for Chrysler’s new luxury car. The advert centered on a conversation between two all-American icons, Frank Sinatra and Chrysler Chairman, Lee Iacocca. Inspired by Brecht’s treatise ‘The Street Scene’, Gerard Byrne worked with film-makers and actors to re-enact this conversation, heaping construct upon construct: looping, slowing down, or positioning his actors incongruously in relation to the narrative, but offering us the tools to deconstruct at every turn, even while we are being drawn into a bizarre discussion about what the American man desires in a car... (Annie Fletcher)

Why it ’s time for Imperial...again,1999.Video still