Gerard Byrne - New Sexual Lifestyles (2003)

series of five large-format photographs depicts a spacious 1970s interior, the setting of another re-staged conversation that is screened on three television monitors. The original debate was published by Playboy in 1972, with questions ranging from the prosaic (‘Do affairs ever help a marriage?’) to the more particular (‘When many swinging couples get back together, is it true they belittle their lovers’ performance to decrease jealousy?’). In the re-enactment the same attention to fluffed lines underscores the unease between actors and dialogue: their speech and surroundings are decidedly 1970s, but their dress is contemporary. Here, though, an innovation heightens the exaggerated staginess of the scenarios: in moving from one monitor to another, you realized that not only are the same questions and answers refilmed and recaptured from new angles time and time again, but also that the multi-channel DVD is set to select and play these randomly, endlessly re-presenting the re-performances"