The Middler is thrilled to present a selection of recent video work by artist Reid Urban in a one-night only screening on Sunday, October 1st, 2017, titled This Thing Called Love, It Can’t Be Described. 

This Thing Called Love, It Can't Be Described will focus primarily on the artist’s short narrative films and will highlight Urban’s recent use of mostly non-professional actors (hired from Craigslist) to perform in dialogues written by the artist. 

These dialogues present an unusual poetics, a conceptual blend of amateur film-making and theater-like performance that celebrates indeterminacy and casts participants of the 'gig economy' to play the roles of Urban's idiosyncratic stories.

Though often absurd and humorous, Urban's stories are strangely poignant, presenting hyper-innocent characters exploring simple but big concepts like love, happiness, life, friendship, being and death. The characters are sensitized to their Earthly predicament yet sustain an earnest attitude to their language – believing it will help them come closer to true self-understanding.

For the occasion of the screening, The Middler has also commissioned a brand new video from Urban, [Title TBD], that follows the form of Urban's 2015 video Men: Living and Dying, which is also highlighted in the program. All videos will be screened for the public for the first time. 

Reid Urban (b. 1979) is an artist, performer, and filmmaker often based in Olympia, Washington, Brooklyn, New York, or Portland, Maine. Urban attended The Evergreen State College where he received a baccalaureate in Performance and Video. This Thing Called Love, It Can’t Be Described is the first presentation of Reid Urban’s video work in New York.

Please note the October 1st screening will have two showings to be scheduled shortly.