Saturday March 9th
Time: 5:00 – 6:30 PM
Film: The Armory Show Focus Group (2012-2013)
Artist: Liz Magic Laser
Duration: 30:00
Panel: Liz Magic Laser, focus group moderator Ben Allen (Labrador Agency), producer David Guinan (Polemic Media), student Justin Thornton, and dealer Esther Kim Varet (Various Small Fires)

As the commissioned artist for The Armory Show 2013, Liz Magic Laser conducted a series of six focus groups in November 2012 to determine the nature of her limited-edition artworks and the visual identity of the fair. She invited members of the art community—a range of collectors, curators, museum directors, advisers and critics—to participate in group discussions that would ultimately determine how she would lend her identity to The Armory Show. Laser enlisted professional moderator Ben Allen to lead these groups of “art world consumers”, framing artistic decision-making as a matter of market research for the art fair. The resulting video, edited from twelve hours of focus group discussions, highlights the complex web of opportunities and compromises that define the relationship between market forces and artistic production today.Laser’s The Armory Show Focus Group (2012-2013) will also be displayed throughout the course of the fair in the Various Small Fires (Los Angeles) booth in the Focus section curated by Eric Shiner. This film will be shown alongside the contractual documentation of the commission as well as the paraphernalia that ultimately gave form to the 2013 visual identity of The Armory Show.