Laura Parnes, Hollywood Inferno (Episode One) 
Jan 4–31, 2003 
 
PARTICIPANT INC presents Hollywood Inferno (episode one), a two-channel video installation by Laura Parnes (running time, 40 minutes). Following its theatrical premiere at MoMA’s Video Viewpoints (2001) and screenings including the New York Underground Film Festival (2002), the piece is presented in the exhibition format for which it was designed. For her first one-person exhibition, Parnes moves further into her interrogation of horror genres and the art world, with their sometimes overlapping cults of personality. Grappling with the danger of beauty without criticality, Hollywood Inferno takes the viewer through the alienating world of a teenager named Sandy, a modern-day Dante, and follows where her aspirations toward stardom lead her.