Critical Writing Index

Francesc Torres: The Tyranny of the Past

by Shelley Rice

Afterimage, Dec. 1982, v. 10, no. 5, pp. 4-7

An examination of the evolution of Francesc Torres' video work explored through six pieces. Beginning with performance pieces that explore his identity and autobiography, his work continues to expand from the theme of personal powerlessness to human helplessness. His first multimedia installation that included video, Residual Regions, explored the intersection of private and quantitative histories of place, where videotapes represented a subjective perspective in opposition to the objective perspective of photographs. In John Doesn't Know What Paul Does, two channels represented the logical and intuitive functions of the brain respectively. The Head of the Dragon explored the violent cycles of human nature, where eight monitors defined the curve of the dragon's tail, each featuring a brief looped clip of a car crash.

ITEM 1982.075 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Almost Like SpeakingFrancesc Torres

AccidentFrancesc Torres

Residual RegionsFrancesc Torres

Repetition of the NoveltyFrancesc Torres

John Doesn't Know What Paul DoesFrancesc Torres

The Head of the DragonFrancesc Torres