Artist

Ernest Gusella

Ernest Gusella was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1941. After studying classical music as a child, he attended the University of Idaho (B.Sc. in Biochemistry), the Alberta College of Art, the Art Students League of New York, and the San Francisco Art Institute (B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Painting). He moved to New York in 1969 and the following year met Woody and Steina Vasulka, the founders of the lengendary Kitchen, and Nam June Paik, "the grandfather of video art." At this time he ceased painting, and began to work exclusively with video as an art form, in addition to creating electronic music on a Putney synthesizer.

From 1971-74, Ernest Gusella produced abstract video tapes generated by sound. In 1974, he began a series of dadaist rituals in front of the camera, utilizing electronic manipulation and interaction of sound and image. This work continued until 1980, when he began a series of longer works which linked together elements of performance, narration and music within a surrealist, stream-of-consciousness context. This approach has been maintained until the present. With his wife, Canadian video artist Tomiyo Sasaki, Gusella has travelled and exhibited throughout the world. He has received grants and awards from the Canada Council, the National Endowment of the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, D.A.A.D.(Germany), and others. His work is included in a number of permanent collections in Canada, the United States, Europe, India, and Japan.

Artist Code: 063

Videography

Operation Wandering Soul

1992, 60:00 minutes, colour/B&W

Monks Who Dream Get Beaten

1988, 60:00 minutes, colour, English

The Red Star

1986, 100:00 minutes, colour, English

What Under The Sun?

1984, 60:00 minutes, colour, English

Bending Diogenes

1982, 60:00 minutes, colour, English

Connecticut Papoose

1981, 60:00 minutes, colour, English

Some Eye And Ear Operations (1977-78)

1979, 55:00 minutes, B&W/colour, English

No Commercial Potential: Collected Works (1974-1978)

1978, 52:00 minutes, B&W, English

Going Public: Selected Works (1974-1976)

1976, 50:00 minutes, B&W, English

Critical Writing

I'm Not a Believer
by Julia Dzwonkoski et al. THe Sky Opened Up with Answers, 2009. Paris: onestar press, 2009.
New Imagery: At the Museum of Modern Art, New York
by Lori Zippay. Video Guide, 1982, v. 4, no. 20.
CAPS Video: Brady, Cohen, DeWitt, Levine, Gusella, Buckner,...
by Janis Croft-Williams et al. Afterimage, Dec. 1980, v. 8, no. 5.
Ernest Gusella: Pleasing Artists and Public Alike
by Victor Ancona. Videography, Feb. 1978.
True Confessions: A Description of Recent Videotapes
by Ernest Gusella. Video Art: An Anthology, 1976. New York; London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.
Words and Images, Images and Words: A Description of Recent Videotapes
by Davidson Gigliotti. The Soho Weekly News, Nov 4, 1976.