24:48 was a video/performance/installation hybrid in which the Burchfield Penney’s video viewing space was filled with 24 monitors with VCRs, various props, and one camera where 48 hours of continuous performance took place prior to, and culminating in, an opening reception on October 3. Experimental Television Center, Ltd. helped to sponsor the project.
The 48-hour performance began on Wednesday, October 1 and consisted of video documentation of performances in two-hour blocks on the video camera. After the initial two-hour performance, one television was added to the background of the space, displaying the first two-hour performance, while the second two-hour performance was enacted in front of the television. Throughout the 48 hours, one television was added every two hours, resulting in a wall of 24 televisions displaying the last 48 hours of activity.
Brian Milbrand, Thomas Holt and other Participating artists including: Annelise Abrams, Tom Bendtsen, Mike Boquard, Dorothea Braemer, Anna Chiaretta, Tony Conrad, Gianna Delluomo, Ron Ehmke, Stephanie Gray, Ivan Jurakic, Jody Lafond, Carl Lee, Mike Nosek, Joe Quinn, Joanna Razynska, Alan Rhodes, JT Rinker, Dennis Ryan, Tracy Ryan, and Kelly Spivey.
Musical performances (some incorporated playing along with previously recorded tracks), a three-person play, a solo performance, a story that evolved through charades, the creation of paintings and sculptures, a poetry reading, production of a film loop, and staged sleeping were included in the performances. The artists stated that the two basic principles at play were endurance and original artistic output during the 48-hour time period. At the end there was video documentation and but various objects and short stories created. During the last two hours, the artists invited the audience to interact with the televisions, adjusting the volume “to isolate the piece of most interest to them.”