Dennis Marsico received the Artist of the Year Award from the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in 2015. The accompanying exhibit occupied two galleries and captured daily events, both in front of and behind the camera. Both galleries featured interactive elements. The first gallery presented a 30-minute video that portrayed the mundane experiences of travel. The video was synchronized with still photographs that glorified the same ordinary observations. These small, wall-mounted prints were illuminated one at a time, corresponding to images on the video. The viewer was forced to look very closely at the small prints, as opposed to stepping back to view the video. In the second gallery all viewers under the age of 60 were required to drop a quarter into a coin slot to activate the lights; similar to coin drops illuminating the art in Italian churches. To add a layer of frivolity to the show, viewers over 60 received free admission.
When entering the second gallery space, all the exhibited photographs and video were darkened. An age-specific, free-standing coin operated kiosk was the viewers’ gateway to view the gallery. Before entering, the viewer was asked to show an ID, if they were over 65 years of age a free token was supplied. If not, the viewer would have to pay twenty five cents to view the exhibit for three minutes.
