Paul Pfeiffer's Media Mysticism at MOCA Los Angeles

Paul Pfeiffer's exhibition 'Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom' at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, runs through June 16. The multimedia show investigates mass culture's spiritual dimensions through altered sports footage. In 'Caryatid' (2003), an NHL Stanley Cup trophy floats without its holder on a silver-plated television. 'The Long Count' (2000–01) transforms Muhammad Ali and opponents Sonny Liston, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier into transparent specters within a boxing ring, displayed on wall-mounted screens that force viewers to strain. 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse' series (2001–18) presents monumental basketball players with jerseys edited to remove identifiers, referencing biblical apocalypse. 'The Saints' (2007) is a 17-channel audio installation featuring 1,000 Filipinos hired to react to the 1966 World Cup final between England and Germany, with an adjacent video showing the original game and crowd in a Manila theater. Pfeiffer, raised between the Philippines and the US, uses these works to reveal how media technology creates near-religious spectacles while obscuring individual subjects. His editing techniques erase athletes and crowds to critique entertainment's homogenizing effects. The exhibition includes video, photography, and sculpture that explore the eerie religiosity of contemporary media.