Artist Carolyn Lazard Has a Radical Proposition for Museum Visitors: Have a Seat, and Be Comfortable
By Alex Greenberger for ARTnews
July 7, 2023
Carolyn Lazard’s video CRIP TIME (2018), now on view at the Museum of Modern Art, lasts only 10 minutes but feels much longer. The entire work is one unbroken take, shot by a camera pointed down at a table, upon which are laid seven pillboxes, one for each day of the week. For some viewers, that shot offers an achingly slow experience; for others, its images will appear all too familiar.
Across the video’s runtime, Lazard can be seen opening the boxes and dropping in an array of pills—circular tablets, maroon discs, gigantic blue capsules. Lazard’s hands move with deliberation, only rarely faltering as a pill slips away before it is picked back up again and dropped in its rightful place. The medications properly distributed, the video ends with Lazard shutting the cases, restoring them to their former state.