As It Lays is a series of televisual portraits of iconic and influential Angelenos. It was created by its host, LA-based artist Alex Israel.
Between July, 2011 and February, 2012, the first thirty As It Lays video portraits were shot at Freeway Studios, in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, CA, and on location at various subjects’ homes and offices throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.
As It Lays premiered at Reena Spaulings Fine Art in New York City, in an exhibition that was held from March 11 through April 8, 2012. Beginning in March 11, 2012 and over the course of two months, the first thirty individual video portraits were released online at www.asitlays.com.
On May 19th, 2012, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles presented As It Lays in a special one night screening and performance event at the Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood, CA. In the former Charlie Chaplin soundstage, in between screenings of previously shown video portraits from the series, Israel created three additional video portraits in front of the live audience. His surprise subjects that evening were Laird Hamilton, Molly Ringwald and Melanie Griffith.
Between August, 2018 and April, 2019, the thirty-three video portraits that comprise As It Lays 2 were shot at Alex Israel’s studio, in Los Angeles, CA. As It Lays 2 premiered at Greene Naftali Gallery, New York, in an exhibition organized in conjunction with Reena Spaulings Fine Art. The exhibition opened on April 30, 2019 and ran until June 15, 2019, and episodes were released beginning May 1st, every Wednesday and Friday, on asitlays.com and YouTube.com/.
Contact
info@asitlays.com