As winter approaches, Regina-based artist and curator, Blair Fornwald offers an antidote to the shortening days: curl up in the Vtape viewing salon and watch videos. A celebration of the mixtape, Assembled is part valentine and part homage, a memory of what it was like to put that special compilation together and a light-hearted evocation of what it was like to receive one.
Fornwald writes, “Living in a small city with not a lot of opportunity to see this kind of work in public venues, we consumed video art serially and socially, in our homes, with our friends, on VHS and DVD. It is a markedly different experience. Inserting video art into your private home makes the work more “habitable” Watching videos becomes a participatory activity – fast forward, rewind, pause to chat or do something else, allow the content to slip from foreground to background, to foreground again.”
Blair Fornwald is Assistant Curator at the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan and, with John G Hampton and Jason Cawood, a member of Turner Prize*, an artists’ collective working in performance and installation.
Opening Reception: December 1, 2012, 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Curator’s Talk: December 1, 2012, 3:00pm
The Program:
Sarah Abbott & Jeremy Drummond: My Heart the Prophet, 2001, 1:45
Produced in collaboration with Jeremy Drummond for the My Heart… series, Abbott reflects on the emotional and pragmatic effects of unrequited childhood love and heartache.
Sarah Abbott & Jeremy Drummond: My Heart the Lunchbox, 2001, 1:45
Both humorous and quietly heartbreaking, Drummond learns why we sometimes hurt the ones we love. Produced in collaboration with Sarah Abbott for the My Heart…series.
Nelson Henricks: My Heart The Optometrist, 2001, 1:00
A short anecdote about the tenuous nature of physical perfection, where beauty is in the eye of the nearsighted narrator. A My Heart…tape by one of the project’s initiators.
Deirdre Logue: Moohead, 2000, 1:00
Part of Enlightened Nonsense, a series of ten thematically related performative films that use specific repetitive gestures to explore complex and distressing psychological states, Moohead pairs viscerally affective and potentially painful action with a slapstick soundtrack.
Jinhan Ko: Orange Crush, 1993, 2:00
Simply put, Orange Crush is a collection of short anecdotes, told by various people, about Orange Crush™.
Steve Reinke: Ice Cream, 034., 1993, 2:31
Part monologue and part improvisational puppet show, Ice Cream tells a story of unattainable desire and partial wish-fulfillment. Part of the 100 Videos compilation that comprise Reinke’s early work.
David Poolman: 13 Instances, 2006, 15:00
Found footage, found sound, and diary excerpts culled from teenage death metal blogs. Anger, rebellion, and introspection are diffused as these fragmented pieces become part of a catalogue of forms.
Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby: Being Fucked Up, 2001, 10:16
Neither misanthropic nor sentimental, Being Fucked Up finds a place of hope and possible redemption in a mire of insecurity and doubt. Episodic in structure, the artists combine performative actions and simple animations with precise words to create an empathetic and emotionally resonant whole.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay: Je Changerais d’Avis, 2000, 4:00
Self-reflexive yet moving, the artist covers an earnest pop ballad expressing the ache of heartbreak and regret while the lyrics are translated into English, French and German text, American Sign Language, and weather report icons.
Alison S.M. Kobayashi: From Alex to Alex, 2006, 6:11
A short narrative video based on a confessional letter Kobayashi found on the Winston Churchill Blvd QEW overpass in fall 2003. A charming and sweet violation of privacy.
Essay:
From Me to You: A Video Mixtape by Blair Fornwald, 2012 (pdf)
Still credit: From Alex to Alex, Alison S.M. Kobayashi.