The veteran English Conceptualist Victor Burgin has more than 35 years of art and writing to his name, so it is dangerous to generalize about his achievement. Still, the video The Little House, in his 11th gallery show in New York, may be one of his best efforts.
Like two previous pieces, this work translates the photo-text combination for which Mr. Burgin is best known into a video that explores a specific architectural site, while a voiceover travels elsewhere. On screen, the camera trolls through the austerely beautiful interior and garden of the Japanese-influenced modern house the architect Rudolph Schindler built for himself, his wife and a second couple in Los Angeles in 1922. Its pavilion-like open plan reflected their open marriages, but it was damp and drafty and fomented divorce.
