Critical Writing Index

Totem Pall

by Alison Boston

Monday Magazine, Aug. 13, 1992

"Totem Pall" is an in-depth review of Mike MacDonald's Electric Totem, five channel video work, where monitors are stacked on top of one another to result in an eight-foot high structure. Each monitor plays eighteen-minutes of footage, which all tell the story of the Gitskan Wetsowet'ain. Alison Boston is able to discuss the piece with MacDonald, who further explains the context and meanings. MacDonald emphasizes that Electric Totem is not television, nor a new form a documentary, but rather video art.

ITEM 1992.091 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Electric TotemMike MacDonald