Experimental and Avant Garde Artists, Performers, and Film Makers: Videotapes in the Media Resources Center, UC Berkeley

Experimental and Avant Garde Artists, Performers, and Film Makers

Contents - this page:

Theater and Performance Art

Artists A-I

Artists J-Z

Music/Sound

Dance

Other

Art/photography SEE MRC Art/Photography videography

Contents - separate page:

General works on modernism

Early modernist filmmakers

Post World War II filmmakers/videomakers

Theater, Poetry, and Performance Art

General Works, Overviews, Miscellany

As Seen On TV

Performer: Actors/performers, Anna Levine ... [et al.]; guest artists courtesy of Henson Associates, Joffrey Ballet. New vaudevillian" performance artist, Bill Irwin, plays a hapless Everyman who inadvertently becomes trapped inside a television set. In this physical comedy that has been likened to a contemporary rendering of Chaplin's Little Tramp, Irwin wanders, baffled, through the television space, caught in the flow of televised soap operas, commercials, sitcoms and ballets.1988. 25 min. Video/C 4683

Carmelita Tropicana: Your Kunst Is Your Waffen

Carmelita Tropicana, a lesbian Latina performance artist who supports herself as a building super on New York's Lower East Side, winds up in jail with three other women after a protest at an abortion clinic. Humorous monologues and campy production numbers ensue. Performers: Carmelita Tropicana, Annie Iobst, Sophia Ramos, Livia Daza Paris. 1994. 28 min. Video/C 8354

The Couple in the Cage: a Guatinaui Odyssey

Directed and produced by Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia; Performers: Guillermo Gomez-Penña, Coco Fusco. Color sequences of the display in various museums of performance artists portraying an aboriginal couple from Gautinau (a fictional island off the coast of Mexico) are contrasted with archival footage and still photographs showing various occasions when indigenous persons were put on public display at circuses, sideshows and the like. Emphasis is placed on the response of the people viewing the Gautinaui couple. c1993. 31 min. DVD 6865; vhs Video/C 4785

Fact is Stranger Than Fiction

A collection of seven short videorecordings and films which comprise worlds made up of fantasy, illusion, fact, and speculation. Focusing primarily on women, each work addresses the ambiguous questions of what and how we believe. Contents: Illusions / produced, written and directed by Julie Dash -- Kleenex Napkin's Cling like cloth -- Semiotics of the kitchen / Martha Rosler -- Design for dreaming / M.P.O. Productions -- Possibly in Michigan / written & directed by Cecelia Condit -- Art world wizard / by Carole Ann Klonarides, Michael Owen -- Leaving the 20th century / a videotape by Max Almy. 90 min. Video/C 3181

Have You Heard the Word?

From alternative rock concerts, to MTV, to clubs, coffee shops, even public parks and buses, poetry in performance, today dubbed "the spoken word," is back. This documentary, hosted by dub poet Clifton Joseph, examines the roots of this phenomenon and demonstrates its rebirth. The film also includes performances and interviews with many of the most popular spoken word artists today as well as such legendary Beat Generation predecessors as Allen Ginsberg. Performer: Performers: Maggie Estep, Regie Cabico, Stan Rogal, Reg E. Gaines, Umar Bin Hassan, Bob Holman, Nicole Blackman, Sheri-D Wilson, Edwin Torres, Jeanette Armstrong, Henry Rollins, Bill Kennedy, Adeena Karasick, Jill Battson, Bill Bissett, Gerry Gilbert, Paul Dutton, Christian Bok, Allen Ginsberg. 1994. 57 min. Video/C 5110

In/Word/Out: Thoughts on Poetry and Performance, with E. R. Baxter.

Poetry readings and discussion with poets Jeff Filipski, Lyn Lifshin, Michael Basinski, and Gerald Locklin. 1992. 58 min. Video/C 6230

The Misfits: 30 Years of Fluxus.

Film portrays a group of artists (Eric Andersen, Philip Corner, Henry Flynt, Ken Friedman,Jon Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Jackson Mac Low, Jonas Mekas, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Ben Patterson, Willem De Ridder, Ben Vautier, EmmettWilliams, La Monte Young) who since the early can be. In large part filmed in Venice in 1990, when many of the original Fluxus artists met to hold a large exhibition almost 30 years after the first highly untraditional Fluxus' performances. 80 min. Video/C 3402

My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud (En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud)

Presents the last two years of the life of French poet, madman, genius, and theatrical impressario, Antonin Artaud. Based on the diaries of Jacques Prevel, a poet who befriended Artaud in 1946 when he was released from an insane asylum. Special features: Documentary by Gerard Mordillat and Jerome Prieur (1933, 21 min.) "Jacques Prevel, de colere et de haine," an intimate portrait of the poet Jacques Prevel, a very close disciple of Artaud, based on the accounts of those close to him ; booklet including interviews with the directors and profiles of the participants ; optional subtitles ; scene selection. Issued with: Veritable histoire d'Artaud le Momo. 1993. 93 min. DVD 5094

Performance: The Living Art.

Documentary on the performance art movement through interviews with artists such as Meredith Monk, Joan Jonas, Spaulding Gray, Robert Wilson, Linda Montano, Michael Smith, Ping Chong and others. Art critics and theorists also discuss the past, present and future of performance art. 58 min. Video/C 3471

Poetry in Motion.

Feature documentary that explores the nature and vision of contemporary poetry. It introduces the work of 25 North American writers by showing them discussing and reading their work. 90 min. Video/C 972

Poetry in Motion II.

Performer: Helen Adam, Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Charles Bukowski, Jim Carroll, Robert Creeley, Diane Di Prima, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, Michael Ondaatje, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldmen, Tom Clark, Spalding Gray, Bob Holman, Rose Lesniak, Cookie Mueller, Eileen Myles, Alice Notley, Joel Oppenheimer, Peter Orlovsky, Pedro Pietri, Jerome Rothenberg, Philip Whalen.

Presents the poems of twenty-four contemporary poets through the dramatic pairing of written text and video performance. Viewers can read a poem, watch it being performed by the author or just sit back and let the words wash over them. Includes some brief interviews. Compu/D 313 (CD-ROM)

Savage/Love.

A collaboration of Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin. Credits: Producers, Joseph Chaikin, Sam Shepard ; videotape, Shirley Clarke ; editors, Shirley Clarke, Steven E. Browne, Randy Cohen ; camera, Walter Edel, Michel Auder, Bob Garucci ; music, Sam Shepard, Skip LaPlante, Harry Mann. Performers: Joseph Chaikin (actor), Sam Shepard and Harry Mann (music performers).

This one-act monologue written by the playwright Sam Shepard, describes one man's quest for love: the search for romantic attachment, from infatuation to insecurity and disillusionment. Film integrates the distinctive styles of three artists: Shepard's innovative, stream-of-consciousness language; Chaikin's kinetic and exacting performance which unifies the pieces; and Clarke's dynamic choreography of image, sound and text with the syncopated use of digital effects, slow motion and editing techniques to distort and manipulate the image. 26 min. Video/C 4681

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist.

Summary: This award winning documentary follows the strikingly original life of the unique artist, comedian and performance artist Bob Flanagan. A provocative, deeply moving, often hilarious chronicle tracing Flanagan's experiences with sadomasochism in his struggle to manage the fatal illness Cystic Fibrosis, "Sick" explores the limits of pain, sexuality, love and death. 1998. 96 min. Video/C 6470

Sphinxes Without Secrets: Women Performance Artists Speak Out.

Women artists discuss performance art and the significant role women have played in it. Includes excerpts from several performances. 58 min. Video/C 3275

Ubu Roi

An early example of modern, expressionistic drama--explained in a documentary section of the program--this anarchic political parody employs many non-realistic theatrical conventions to depict man in a distorted and exaggerated fashion in order to make fun of ambition, nobility, idealism and government. This condendensed video version captures the outrageous tone of the play which was a major influence on the theatre of the absurd. Credits: Writer, Alfred Jarry. For Miami-Dade: producer/director, Andrew Martin ; executive producer, Franklin C. Bounsma ; executive-in-charge, Robert Singer. For BBC/OPEN University: executive producer, Nancy Thomas; producer/director, Paul Kafno; assistant director, Richard Callanan ; designer, Darce Punt. 60 min. Video/C 4048

The United States of Poetry.

Performers: Henry Real Bird, George Ella Lyon, Jeff Tagami, Tracie Morris, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Naomi Shihab Nye, Nora Marks Dauenhauer, Lord Buckley, Sparrow, Everton Sylvester, James Still, Rita Dove (Pt.1); Peter Spiro, Thylias Moss, Czeslaw Milosz, Pedro Pietri, Ismail Azim El, Sheryl Noethe, Matt Cook, Dan Powers, Hal Sirowitz, C.D. Wright, Paul Beatty, Dennis Cooper, Derek Walcott (Pt.2); Thylias Moss, Leonard Cohen, Amiri Baraka, Nerissa Dias, Vess Quinlan, Genny Lim, John Wright, Ruth Forman, Jim Northrup, Luis Alfaro, Wanda Coleman, Javier Pina, Robert Chambers, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Barbara Kruger (Pt.3).

Short films that illustrate individual poems by American poets recited by their creators. 1996. 72 min. Video/C 5033-5034

Marina Abramovic

4 Performances by Marina Abramovic, 1975-1976

Contents: Art must be beautiful, Artist must be beautiful. -- Freeing the voice -- Freeing the memory -- Freeing the body. Galerie Mike Steiner, Berlin, December, 1976. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 54 min. Video/C 5364

An Event by Ulay

A performance art piece "exploring the interrelatedness of physical and mental realms" by two early artists, Ulay and Marina Abramovic. Galerie Mike Steiner, Berlin, 1976. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 26 min. Video/C 5364

Relation Work, 1976-1979: 14 performances

Contents: Relation in space -- Talking about similarity -- Breathing in, breathing out -- Imponderabilia -- Expansion in space -- Relation in movement -- Relation in time -- Light/Dark -- Balance proof -- AAA-AAA -- Incision -- Kaiserschnitt -- Charged space -- Three.

Performance art pieces illustrating art in confrontation with life and the individual versus the universal by early artists, Ulay and Marina Abramovic. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1996. 148 min. Video/C 5366

Vito Acconci Books and articles about Acconci in the UCB Library Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S. Two Moon July

Willoughby Sharp Videoviews Vito Acconci

Willoughby Sharp conducts an informal interview with video artist and performer, Vito Acconci. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1973 62 min. Video/C 5240

14 Americans: Directions of the 1970s

Featuring: Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Alice Aycock, Scott Burton, Peter Campus, Chuck Close, Nancy Graves, Joseph Kosuth, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mary Miss, Elizabeth Murray, Dennis Oppenheim, Dorothea Rockburne, Joel Shapiro.

Examines a diverse group of New York-based artists in order to record many of the most provocative works and ideas of the past decade. These artists created performances, sculptures, earthworks, tableaux, furniture, shaped canvases and more using unusual materials. In this "idea art," their focus is often as much social and psychological as artistic. c2000. 91 min. Video/C 9105

Applications.

A video performance by Acconci, which illustrates his unique engagement of conceptual art, performance and Body Art. In this piece a woman kisses Acconci's body, covering him in red lipstick traces. Acconci then rubs his body against another man (Dennis Oppenheim), transferring the stains onto him. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1970. 20 min. Video/C 5158

Association Area.

As a document of early performance art, this tape details the process of orientating the body and self in space, providing a physical metaphor for the process of adjusting oneself in society. Blindfolded, with ears plugged, two men try to sense each other's movements to assume the same motion and bearing. An off-screen voice, heard only by the audience, gives directions that would help them attain their goal. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1971. 61 min. Video/C 5207

Centers.(1971)

The film was made by Acconci's using the video monitor as a mirror. As we look at the artist sighting along his outstretched arm and forefinger toward the center of the screen what we see is a sustained tautology: a line of sight that begins at Acconci's plane of vision and ends at the eyes of his projected double. The result turns the activity around: a pointing away from the filmaker at an outside viewer. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) DVD 5362; also vhs Video/C 5206

Command Performance.

In this performance piece Acconci attempts to replace himself with the viewer. The artist lies on the floor and philosophizes, having the camera focus on his mouth throughout the performance, while the viewer is encouraged to take his place on an empty stool in a spotlight. Originally produced in 1974. 57 min. DVD 5364

Conversions.

A performance videotape by Acconci who is known for his use of gesture, ritualized action and the human body as performance object. In this 3 part film Acconci, in a dark room burns the hair off of his chest with a candle, then plays with the illusion of having female breasts. In Parts II and III, Acconci continues to play with gender illusions via manipulations of his own body parts. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1971. 66 min. Video/C 5152

Face-off.

This film is an ironic collusion of private and public, of exposure and masking, a tense ritual wherein Acconci divulges and then censors his self-revelations. He turns on an audiotape of his own voice addressing himself and the viewer, recounting intimate details about his life. Whenever the material becomes too personal however, he tries to drown out his voice and prevent the viewer from hearing yelling "No, no, no, don't tell this!" He becomes increasingly agitated as the tape proceedes. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 32 min. Video/C 5243

Fresh Acconci.

Artists Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley re-stage classic 1970s performance pieces by Vito Acconci, with a decidedly ironic Southern California sensibility. Based on videotapes by Vito Acconci: "Claim excerpts" (1971), "Contacts" (1971), "Focal point" (1971), "Pryings" (1971), and "Theme song" (1973). Originally produced in 1995. 45 min. DVD 5365

Pryings.

This documentation of a live performance at New York University, is a graphic exploration of the physical and psychological dynamics of male/female interaction, a study in control, violation and resistance. The camera focuses tightly on Kathy Dillon's face, as Acconci tries to pry open her closed eyes. Her body is a vehicle for a literal enactment of the desire for and resistance against intimate contact. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art). 17 min. Video/C 5154

The Red Tapes.

tape 1. Common knowledge -- tape 2. Local color -- tape 3. Time lag. Camera, Ed Bowes ; sound, Tome Bowes ; music, Charles Ives. Ericka Beckman, Ilona Granet, Richie O'Halloran, Kathy Rusch, David Salle, Michael Zwack. Considered to be Acconci's master work, this three-part epic is one of the major achievements in the video medium. Designed originally for video projection, the work is structured to merge video space--the close-up--with filmic space--the landscape. Acconci maps a topography of the self within a cultural and social context, locating personal identity through history, cultural artifacts, language and representation. Originally released in 1976. 142 min. DVD 5361

Seedbed.

A silent record of Acconci's performance art piece where he lay hidden underneath a gallery-wide ramp installed at the Sonnabend Gallery, masturbating while talking about his fantasies about the visitors walking above him on the ramp. Originally released in 1972. 10 min. DVD 5363

Three Adaptation Studies

Contents: Blindfolded catching -- Soap and eyes -- Hand and mouth. In these early film exercises, Acconci exhibits an almost childlike vulnerability that is at once comic and oddly affecting. In Blindfold Catching, a blindfolded Acconci reacts, flinching and lunging, as rubber balls are repeatedly thrown at him from off-screen. In Soap & Eyes, he tries to keep his eyes open after dousing his face with soapsuds, resulting in a tragicomic clown face. In Hand and Mouth, he repeatedly forces his fist into his mouth until he gags. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 1970. 8 min,

Undertone.

One of Acconci's most compelling and controversial works, Undertone is a confrontational and coercive attempt to engage the viewer in an intimate, ultimately perverse relation with the artist as he expounds a masturbatory fantasy with the viewer as voyeur. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art). 1973. 37 min. Video/C 5210

Laurie Anderson

Two Moon July

14 Americans: Directions of the 1970s

Laurie Anderson on Performance.

Profiles performance artist Laurie Anderson who is best known for her use of music, technology, handmade instruments, films, actors and props to tell her tales. Includes footage of 1984 and 1999 interviews with Anderson, excerpts from Anderson's performances, and an interview with RoseLee Goldberg, author of a book on Anderson's work. 58 min. Video/C 8249

Puppet Motel.

(CD-ROM/Mac). Laurie Anderson; with Hsin-chien Huang. Original interactive multimedia performance piece. If the computer has a direct Internet connection (PPP, SLIP, or similar), and a copy of Netscape Navigator, Netscape can be launched directly from within Puppet motel. Includes the music for Down in Soho and excerpts from Stories from the Nerve Bible. Compu/D 322

The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers

Four women composers (Laurie Anderson, Tania Leon, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros) talk about their backgrounds, musical development, and work. Although all are pioneers in American music, each pursues a distinct direction of her own. Filmed at rehearsals and performances in the United States and abroad, the program examines the contributions of these diverse composers to contemporary American music. 2000. 58 min. Video/C 8413

Talk Normal: The Laurie Anderson Anthology. [Sound Recording]

Contents: O Superman (for Massenet) -- From the air -- Big science -- Born, never asked -- It tango -- Gravity's angel -- Excellent birds -- Langue d'amour -- Sharkey's day c (single edit) -- Walk the dog -- Cartoon song -- So happy birthday -- City song -- The big top -- Dr. Miller -- Lighting out for the territories -- Smoke rings -- Talk normal -- Language is a virus -- Credit racket -- Strange angels -- Babydoll -- Collsville -- My eyes -- The dream before -- The day the devil -- Speak my language -- Love among the sailors -- Poison -- In our sleep -- Night in Baghdad -- The night flight from Houston -- The rotowhirl -- The ouija board -- The end of the world. 153 min. SOUND/D 73

Ant Farm

Ant Farm Video.

Contents: Cadillac Ranch 1974/1994 -- Media burn -- Ant Farm's dirty dishes -- Inflatables illustrated -- World's longest bridge -- Ant Farm time capsule, 1972-1984 -- OFF-AIR Australia. In 1975, two artists barreled a car full speed into a pyramid of televisions for a spectacular performance art put on by the Ant Farm, a group of radical architects, video and performance artists and visionaries. Includes six additional Ant Farm features. Films originally produced between 1970-2003. 127 min. DVD 2774 (Cadillac Ranch and Media Burn also on VHS Video/C 3303)

The Eternal Frame See Persistence of Vision, 1

John Baldessari

Baldessari Sings LeWitt

Seated and holding a sheaf of papers, Baldessari proceeds to sing each of Sol Lewitt's thirty-five conceptual statements to a different pop tune, after the model of Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter. What initially presents itself as faintly humorous, gradually becomes a struggle to convey Lewitt's statements through this arbitrary means. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1972. 15 min. Video/C 4684

How We Do Art Now

Contents: How various persons spit out beans -- Comparing two sounds -- A 20" tape -- The Eye does not naturally pan -- Cigar lexicon -- On making a masterpiece (for Joe Frazier).

A series of conceptual non sequiturs that illustrate the video artist's strategy of indexing variations of simple actions or objects to the point of absurdity. 13 min. Video/C 4684

I Am Making Art

In an ironic reference to body art, process art and performance, Baldessari challenges definitions of the content and execution of art-making. Performing with deadpan precision, he moves his hands, arms and entire body in studied, minute motions, intoning the phrase "I am making art" with each gesture, as if art were being created from moment to moment with each body movement. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1971. 17 min. Video/C 5242

John Baldessari: Some Stories

Through commentary by the artist, this film reveals the thinking behind the work of John Baldessari over the course of his career, and provides clues to the understanding of the artist's paintings, photographic work and books. What emerges is a portrait of a thoughtful, quietly rebellious artist who has influenced a large number of younger artists over the last twenty years, and who has clearly followed his own path in the exploration of the territory which he embarked upon in the late 1960's. 1990. 29 min. Video/C 6576

Matthew Barney

The Body as Matrix: Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle.

With the five-part Cremaster Cycle of films, multi-award-winning artist Matthew Barney invented a densely layered and interconnected sculptural world that surreally combines sports, biology, sexuality, history, and mythology as it organically evolves. In this program, Barney, Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector, and others deconstruct the Cycle's filming and subsequent translation into sculptural installations. 2003. 53 min. DVD 2804

Matthew Barney, No Restraint

Follow the phenomenal journey of renowned artist Matthew Barney and his collaborator, singer-songwriter Bjork, as they embark on an unbelievable filmmaking journey in Japan. From artistic vision to manifestation, this compelling documentary reveals Barney's unique process in creating Drawing restraint 9, a massive cinematic piece that combines a whaling vessel; 45,000 pounds of petroleum jelly; and traditional Japanese rituals in one fantastical love story. It's a rare look at a one-of-a-kind artist who has inspired audiences around the globe. Includes interview gallery featuring Matthew Barney, Bjork and the chief art critic from the New York Times, Michael Kimmelman; time laps photography. Produced and directed by Alison Chernick. c2007. 71 min. DVD 7588

The Order: From Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3

A sequence from Matthew Barney's film Cremaster 3. In a death-defying race to the top of the Guggenheim Museum, Matthew Barney is a tartan-clad apprentice seeking Masonic redemption. Special features: Interactive multi-angle video presentation, commentary track by director Matthew Barney, new music remixes, Cremaster cycle trailer. c2003. 31 min. DVD 1840

Julian Beck

SEE Living Theatre

Lynda Benglis

From the Heart

This film explores twentieth-century art by women, focusing on nine of the thirteen artists whose works compose the Gihon art collection: Works by Women ( Lynda Benglis, Lynda, Nancy Chambers, Clyde Connell, Janet Fish, Janet, Hermine Ford, Dorothy Hood, Dorothy, Mary F. McCleary, Gael Stack, Dee Wolff). The artists provide the dialogue, about artistic techniques employed, family background, philosophy of art, self-criticism, and success. 1998? 57 min. Video/C 5877

Mumble

A part of an ongoing video correspondence with sculptor, Robert Morris, this film brings together repeated scenes and gestures, featuring Morris and Jim Benglis, the artist's brother, and a narrative of irrelevant, confusing and often purposefully untrue statements. Although the viewer is inclined to accept Benglis' narrative as true, such trust is called into question by her statements about actions taking place off camera which cannot be verified. As Benglis' narration degenerates into a meaningless, repetitive pulse, Mumble disrupts the convenient fiction that the image presented on screen is complete unto itself. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1972. 21 min. Video/C 5211

Now

Throughout this video, Benglis asks "Now?!" as she makes faces and sounds and even kisses her own image on a monitor. The word "Now" used here as both question and command focuses attention on the deceptive "real" time of video. As her first color tape, Benglis experiments with the effect of unnatural color, turning up the levels until the colors are very high and artificial, which again disperses the idea of video as an impartial or "direct" medium. 1973. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 13 min. Video/C 5208

Bread and Puppet Theater

A semi-documentary of the Bread and Puppet Domestic Resurrection Circus, filmed from 1990 to 1998. Drawn from more than 200 hours of documentation of the last 8 years of the Bread and Puppet's Domestic Resurrection Circus, it demonstrates how papermache and burlap are transformed into dragons, giants and goddesses. A film by DeeDee Halleck and Tamar Schumann. 2002. 84 min. Video/C MM1137

Brother Bread, Sister Puppet

Documents the Bread & Puppet Theater Company's 1988 Our Domestic Resurrection Circus, an annual event held at the Company's home in northern Vermont. Members of the Company discuss the political and personal reasons for their involvement in it and how they create the puppets, posters, music, etc. which are used in its performances. 59 min. Video/C 4078

Description from Cinema Guild catalog

A Convention of the Gods

A morality play in which the gods Wind, Progress, Hope, Phobia, and Terminator convene to preside over the sacrifice of the people of Saravejo, Bosnia. Includes narrative comments by the theater's director, Peter Schumann. Taped at the Bread & Puppet Domestic Resurrection Circus on August 14, 1993. 27 min. Video/C 5130

Peter Brook

Conversations About Theater.

Margaret Croyden talks with British theatrical director, Peter Brook, upon his return from Africa with the members of his International Center of Theatre Research, a group of actors based in Paris. In this extensive interview Brook explains his views on theater, cross-cultural performances, improvisation, Shakespeare, and working with young actors. Videocassette release of a film originally shown on the CBS television show Camera Three, in 1973. 28 min. Video/C 5185

The Empty Space

Peter Brook created the International Centre of Theatre Research in Paris in 1970. In the autumn of 1973, the Centre conducted a five week work period at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, performing and giving demonstrations of exercises, in which members of the audience participated, and exchanged ideas with the New York theatre community. This film of one days work features a dozen members of Brook's acting company, including Helen Mirren, working with four musicians and noted composer Elizabeth Swados. 60 min. Video/C 6030

Chris Burden

Willoughby Sharp Videoviews Chris Burden.

Willoughby Sharp conducts an informal interview with modern artist and performer, Chris Burden. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 1975. 28 min. Video/C 5241

Chris Burden.(On art and Artists)

In this documentary Chris Burden talks about his works of the past twenty years, from the performances of the seventies to the sculpture and installations of the eighties. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art)1989. 28 min. Video/C 5145

Chris Burden: Documentation of Selected works 1971-1975

Presents eleven body art/performance pieces, introduced and narrated by the artist. 220 -- Shoot -- Bed piece -- Deadman -- Fire roll -- Icarus -- B.C. Mexico -- Through the night softly -- TV ad -- Back to you -- Velvet water. 35 min. Video/C MM868

Burning Man Festival

Burning Man Beyond Black Rock, An Authorized Documentary

Featuring: Larry Harvey, David Best, Marian Goodell, Will Roger, Harley Dubois, Danger Ranger, Crimson Rose. For seven days and nights, Black Rock City in Nevada stands as a community free of commerce, bound by a social contract of tolerance and cooperation, dedicated to art and self-expression. Then it disappears without a trace. The filmmakers spent 18 months with the founders, organizers, artists and participants to document the full complexity and diversity of the Burning Man community ... and their plans to bring its unique culture to the rest of the world. Special features: Over 2 hours of deleted scenes; extended interviews with the cast; outtakes; bonus 16-minute short film "Preacher with an unknown God." 2006. 106 min. DVD 6864

Burning Man Festival, 1994.

A stunning visual portrait of the Burning Man Festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Includes interviews with the creators of various performance art pieces. See a jet-propelled rocket car, a giant shark car, a dragon spouting fire, decorated "art cars", buses and persons. Concludes with the ritual destruction of a 4 story tall Burning Man. One of the most unique cultural events in late 20th century American culture. 48 min. Video/C 4774

The Burning Man Festival [1996]

Burning Man festival (40 min.) -- Burning man: just add couches (50 min.) Commentary: Larry Harvey (director, Burning Man festival), John Law (technical director) Burning man festival: An indepth look at the Festival described as semi-structured anarchy; "a laboratory ... for reinventing civilization." Shows the construction of the 4 story high "Man" with interviews with the director of the festival, technical director and construction forman of "The Man." In "Just add couches" Joe Winston and his friends return to the festival and create the "Couch potato camp." "What this festival really needs is a living room setting, where people can watch TV and drink beer,"....which is harder than it looks with the nearest hardware store 50 miles away. c1997. DVD 6863; vhs Video/C 8366 (Burning Man Fesival only)

David Byrne

Reports from L.A. See Two Moon July

True Stories.

Performers: John Goodman, Annie McEnroe, Swoosie Kurtz, Spalding Gray, Pops Staples, Tito Larriva, David Byrne. Episodic stories showcasing amiable and offbeat characters such as the world's laziest woman and 50 sets of twins. 89 min. Video/C 999:1081

Peter Campus

Three Transitions.

In three short exercises, Campus uses basic techniques of video technology and his own image to create succinct, almost philosophical metaphors for the psychology of the self. In the first "transition," he appears to stab himself in the back, climb through the rupture in his body, and emerge whole on the other side. In the second execise, Campus wipes his face with his hand and "erases" its surface--only to reveal another image of his face underneath. Finally in conclusion, he appears to burn the living image of his face (as if it were a photograph), leaving only blackness. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 5 min. Video/C 5153

DV8

The Cost of Living

The work of the dance troupe DV8 Physical Theatre is about taking risks -- both physical and aesthetic. It is about personal politics, about breaking down barriers between dance and theatre and, above all, about communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously. The company tells stories through extended naturalistic movement in a radical yet accessible way, rejecting the traditional conventions of ballet and modern dance. The Cost of Living highlights the troupe in a story about two dancers, Eddie, a tough confrontational guy and David, a legless dancer who is determined not to let his disability or society's prejudices get him down. DV8 Theatre: Eddie Kay, David Toole, Vivien Wood, Tanja Liedtke, Rowan Thrope, Kareena Oates, Tom Hodgson, Jose Maria Alves, Robin Dingemans and Eddie Nixon. 2004. 35 min. DVD 5289

Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men

Performers: Lloyd Newson, Nigel Charnock, Russell Maliphant, Douglas Wright. "Dead Dreams of Mononochrome Men explores the grisly world of the notorious serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Founded upon the conviction that societal homophobia is bound to result in tragic consequences, it gets to grips with the disturbing forces that drove Nilsen to kill for company ..." 1990. 52 min. Video/C MM809

Enter Achilles

Performers: Gabriel Castillo, Jordi Cortes Molina, Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, David Emanuel, Ross Hounslow, Jeremy James, Liam Steel, Robert Tannion. "A funny, cruel exploration of the male psyche, Enter Achilles is set in a typical British pub: pop songs blare out of the jukebox, there is football on TV, and eight men lark around, pint glasses in hand. But their blokeish fun is balanced on a knife-edge of tension, for beneath their apparent friendship lurks a disturbing undercurrent of paranoia and insecurity." 1996. 48 min. Video/C MM808

Strange Fish

Performers: Kate Champion, Nigel Charnock, Jordi Cortes Molina, Wendy Houstoun, Melanie Pappenheim (vocals), Diana Payne-Myers, Lauren Potter, Dale Tanner. "The nature of our quest for someone to love and someone, or something, to believe in. The tyranny of couples and groups, the pain of not belonging and the terror of being alone are all laid bare in a series of powerful images which are both pitiless and profoundly compassionate." c1993. 56 min. Video/C MM810

Valie Export

See Film/Videomakers

Karen Finley

Alive & Kicking: New Dance & Performance Art from P.S. 122 in New York City

"Excerpts from 'The American Chestnut' written and performed by Karen Finley; visual art and video by Karen Finley."--Closing credits. Three tapes, 29 min. each: Alive & Kicking #34, #35, #36. 87 min. Video/C 6062

Karen Finley.

An interview with the American artist, Karen Finley. 47 min. Video/C 4165

Fluxus

Flux Concert

On March 24, 1979, The Kitchen hosted a concert of reconstructed historical Fluxus performances. Over forty short pieces by thirty artists and composers were performed (with occasional assistance from the audience). Among the pieces featured were compositions by reknowned Fluxus artists Yoko Ono, Ben Vautier, Le Monte Young and George Maciunas. Performers include Simone Forti, Dick Higgins, Yoshi Wada and Geoff Hendricks. Dist. Electronic Arts Intermix. 82 min. Video/C MM1059

Fluxfilm Anthology.

A collection of over 30 films, ranging from 10 secondsto 10 minutes, all celebrating the ephemeral humor ofthe Fluxus movement. George Maciunas (1931-78) editedtogether films by himself, Albert Fine, Eric Andersen,Dick Higgins, George Brecht, Robert Watts, Joe Jones,James Riddle, Wolf Vostell, George Landow, PeterKennedy (and Mike Parr), Peter Vanderbeek, JohnCavanaugh, Jeff Perkins, Nam June Paik, Chieko Shioni, Paul Sharits, Yoko Ono, John Cale, andothers. Selected and arranged by Larry Miller and Ken Friedman. 150 min. Video/C 5057

The Misfits: 30 Years of Fluxus.

Some Fluxus.

Eric Andersen, George Brecht, Philip Corner, Jean Dupuy, Dick HIggins, Joe Jones, Mieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier, Robert Watts. This video documentary features performance works by numerous Fluxus artists juxtaposed with excerpts from Miller's 1978 Interview with George Maciunas, providing historical contextualization for this influential movement. Dist. Electronic Arts Intermix. 1991. 59 min. Video/C MM1058

Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas.

A film diary of George Maciunas taken between 1952 and 1978. Includes footage of his parents, footage of various Fluxus events and scenes from Maciunas' private life and friends. Soundtrack is the madrigal Zefiro torna by Monteverdi. 35 min. Video/C 3982

Richard Foreman

Out of the Body Travel

A "young woman who finds herself surrounded by therelics of Western culture" is the starting point forthis stylized theatrical tableaux of people andobjects. The coupling of language and image, male andfemale, the self and the other results in an evocativeand sometimes erotic series of tensions. Disruptivedevices--loud buzzers, disjunctive images--repeatedly interrupt the tape's highly orderedcompositions and linguistic structure. 42 min. Video/C 4686

Joanna Frueh

Mouth Piece

Contents: Excerpts from: Femininity / Susan Brownmiller -- Greatmother / Erich Neumann -- Feminist practice &poststructuralist theory / Chris Weedon -- Joy's way /W. Brugh Joy -- State of the art / Arthur C. Danto --New French feminisms / Elaine Marks, Isabelle deCourtivron -- Face value / Robin Tolmach Lakoff,Raquel L. Scherr.

A monologue performed by Joanna Frueh concerningfeminist views, male and female relationships andsocial perceptions of women. 1992. 56 min. Video/C 5252

Spalding Gray

Swimming to Cambodia

A comic saga of the making of an epic war film including 66 takes of the first scene, a jarring encounter with Thai marijuana and the denizens of Asian massage parlors and sex bars. 85 min. Video/C 999:1029

Performance: The Living Art

Poetry in Motion 2

True Stories

Jacqueline Gross

There, There Square

The desire to own and name land and the pleasures of seeing from a distance color this personal survey of the history of mapmaking in the New World. Takes a close look at the gestures of travelers, mapmakers, and saboteurs that determine how we read - and live within - the lines that define the United States. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 14 min. DVD 6377

Lynn Hershman

Cut Piece: A Video Homage to Yoko Ono.

Cut piece is a performance piece originally written and performed by Yoko Ono in 1964. In this video recreation three female performers dressed in fine party dress kneel in center stage and place a pair a scissors in front of themselves. Members of the audience come up on stage and begin to cut pieces of the performer's clothing. This continues until a performer says stop or until there isn't any more cloth to cut. 16 min. Video/C 2735

Gary Hill See Experimental/Avant Garde Filmmakers

Nancy Holt Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S.

East Coast, West Coast.

Artists Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, a married couple until Smithson's death in 1973, filmed their 1969 discussion of contrasting lifestyles and approaches to artistic creation. Smithson championed a relatively loose, free-wheeling approach while Holt argued for a greater degree of order and conceptualization in life and art. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art.) Dist.: Video Data Bank. 23 min. 1969. Video/C 5150

Going Around in Circles

With: Jim Braddick, Stephen Button, Nancy Holt, Bruce Kurtz, Tom Litrin, John Miller, Peter Napoli. Going Around In Circles continues Holt's interest in perception and point of view. A board with five circular holes is placed in front of the camera. The holes are covered and uncovered to reveal five people enacting a set of activities that involves walking between five spots and turning in circles. A discussion takes place between the artist and several of the "performers" which addresses the various physicalities of the action: the experience of being on the ground, watching the actions take place through the prop, and through the playback monitor, as well as notions of scale, and the chance happenings that take place within any system. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 1973. 15 min. Video/C MM1168

Mono Lake

Featuring film footage and slide images of artists Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer and Nancy Holt as they visited California's Mono Lake in July of 1968, this piece was edited by Holt in 2004. Mono Lake candidly captures the young artists as they explore the haunting landscape of one of the oldest and most distinctive lakes in North America. Heizer and Smithson are heard reading facts about the unique ecology, geology and natural phenomena of this alkaline lake; filmed against images of the beauty of the lake's natural environment. A "home movie" of the artists' 1968 road trip, and an intimate view of three seminal figures in the earth art movement as they interact with the Western landscapes that are so central to their work. Produced and edited by Nancy Holt; sound track readings, Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 28 min. 1968. Video/C 5150

Sun Tunnels

Documents the making of Holt's major site-specific sculptural work in the northwest Utah desert. Completed in 1976, the sculpture features a configuration of four large concrete tubes or "tunnels" that are positioned to align with the sunrise and sunset of the summer and winter solstices. With stunning footage of the changing sun and light as framed by the tubes, Sun Tunnels calls attention to human scale and perception within the vast desert landscape. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 1978. 27 min. Video/C MM1191

Swamp

A film by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson. This is an unedited exploration of a swamp, with unedited audible camera direction. It is as much an exploration of camera work as of the swamp environment. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. c1971. 6 min. Video/C MM1190

Jenny Holzer

Sign on a Truck

Jenny Holzer's 1984 presidential election eve projectutilized a truck equipped with a sound system and an18-foot Diamond Vision electronic board that displayedimages, statements, and "man-on-the-street"interviews. Presents a tightly edited version of theart, texts, and interviews that occurred during theday. 50 min. Video/C 8783

Televised Texts

From the American artist and poet Jenny Holzer, presents28 "Italian language spots" and 24 "English languagespots" consisting of visual and spoken epigrams, each7-12 seconds long. 27 min. Video/C 8784

Bill Irwin

As Seen On TV

Performer: Actors/performers, Anna Levine ... [et al.] ; guest artists courtesy of Henson Associates, Joffrey Ballet.

New vaudevillian" performance artist, Bill Irwin, plays a hapless Everyman who inadvertently becomes trapped inside a television set. In this physical comedy that has been likened to a contemporary rendering of Chaplin's Little Tramp, Irwin wanders, baffled, through the television space, caught in the flow of televised soap operas, commercials, sitcoms and ballets.1988. 25 min. Video/C 4683

The Regard of Flight (Clown Bagatelles)

Performers: Bill Irwin, Doug Skinner, Michael O'Connor.In this humorous critique of the "new theatre," Bill Erwin, clown, mime, dancer and satirist performs as a hapless everyman combining gags, dance routines and sketches to dramatize the frustration of the entertainer whose wish to entertain his audience is continually beset by trials. Originally broadcast on the PBS television program: Great performances. 59 min. Video/C 7394

Joan Jonas

Duet

In this seminal exploration of the phenomenology of video as a mirror and as a "reality," Jonas, face-to-face with her own recorded image, performs a duet with herself in this classic early video. 1972. Video/C MM974

Glass Puzzle

This complex and enigmatic work, which is performed by Jonas and Lois Lane, explores female gestures, poses, the body and narcissism. Mirroring each other with synchronized movements as they perform as alter-egos, Jonas and Lane reference archetypal female gestures and poses from popular and traditional cultures. This evocative personal theater is a quintessential Jonas work with its idiosyncratic vocabulary of gestures, ritual and symbolism. 1973. (Purchased with Stuart and Gial Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 18 min. Video/C 5234

Mirage

Writes Jonas: "For Mirage, I made a film of drawing,again and again, images on a blackboard, and thenerasing them. I got an idea to use drawings, which Icalled "Endless drawings" after those described in theMelukean Book of the Dead, the tribal ritual book ofNew Guinea," which says that in order to go from oneworld to the next you must finish a drawing in sand." 1976. 31 min. Video/C MM128

Point of View: An Anthology of the Moving Image: Joan Jonas

Contents: Video: Waltz / Joan Jonas (7 min., 2003) -- Interview (2003) -- Image gallery -- biography. In Waltz, a filmed performance piece created by the American artist Joan Jonas, she pays homage to 18th century French outdoor theater, incorporating mythology into the narrative alongside spontaneously occurring events. Film is followed by an in-depth interview with the video artist. Produced by Bick Productions, Ilene Kurtz-Kretzschmar and Caroline Bourgeois and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Published on the occasion of the exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, February 27-May 2, 2004. DVD 2424

Songdelay

Performed with a cast that includes Gordon Matta-Clark,Jonas choreographs a theater of space, movement andsound with the urban landscape of New York in afeatured role. This early classic performanceresonates with themes and strategies that recur throughout Jonas' later performance works. Originally produced as a film in 1973. 19 min. Video/C MM130

Volcano Saga: Iceland, 1985.

Based on the thirteenth century Icelandic Laxdaela Saga, this narrative reverie is a retelling of a medieval myth about a young woman whose dreams foretell the future. Shot in the dramatic natural landscapes of Iceland and in New York, this performance-based work uses ancient dream analysis as a starting point for a densely textured tale, in which the young woman's interpreter hears her dreams and sees their meaning. A surrealistic ambience is created by the use of multi-layered digital effects, ghostly overlays, other-worldly images and the mythical text. 29 min. Video/C 4680

Vertical Roll

Using the technique of a continuous vertical roll, Jonas constructs a theater of female identity by deconstructing representations of the female body. Using her own body as performance object and video as a theatrical construct, Jonas unveils a disjunctive self-portrait. As she performs in front of the camera-- masked, wearing a feathered headdress, or costumed as a belly-dancer--her feet, torso, arms and legs, subjected to the violence of the vertical roll, appear as disembodied fragments. (Purchased with Stuart and Gial Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art). 20 min. Video/C 5157

Performance, the Living Art

Allan Kaprow

Allan Kaprow Interview.

Interview with Allan Kaprow, conceptual artist, performance artist and commercial artist, concerning his philosophy of art as an expression of contemporary American life. 38 min. Video/C 4667

Last Poets

Right On!: Poetry on Film.

During 1968 on the hot streets of New York a trio of young black performers, calling themselves The Original Last Poets, were creating a hip new form of guerilla poetry woven of soul, jazz, the blues and gospel. Today they are credited as the tap-root artists of Rap. This film, set on the rooftops and backalleys of the Lower East Side, presents the trio in the full range of performance from satire and power to tenderness and affirmation. 73 min. Video/C 3403

Elizabeth LeCompte

Elizabeth LeCompte.

An interview with Elizabeth LeCompte, the director of the Wooster Group, an experimental theater company that operates out of its own theater, the Performing Garage, in New York City. The group's working process involves "source" texts which are quoted, reworked and juxtaposed with fragments of popular, cultural and social history, and finally combined with the personal or collective experiences of the group's members. 43 min. Video/C 4668

House/lights.

Performance of the Wooster Group's adaptation of Dr. Faustus lights the lights, using live actors and video, including Joseph Mawra's 1964 film "Olga's house of shame". The third disc is the documentary "On tour" by Ken Kobland, of the Wooster Group on tour in Glasgow, Scotland, June 2000. "After Gertrude Stein's Dr. Faustus lights the lights." Originally performed and taped in March 1999 at the Performing Garage, New York. DVD 3495

White Homeland Commando

Story 1: Adanazio -- Story 2: R.R. -- Story 3: Stephanie -- Story 4: Shelia -- Story 5: Cathy -- Story 6: Diana -- Story 7: Ray -- Story 8: Karl. An exploration of the lives of New York City detectives consisting of 8 short stories. Although fictional, the teleplay relies on a composite of actual filmed accounts of hate crimes. Shot and edited in a highly textured visual style, the colors are subdued yet somehow garish, and the sound is deliberately just out of sync with the speaker's lips. Occasional static combines with jumps in the plot reminiscent of a television viewer flipping channels. The Wooster Group's first work conceived solely for video, they have achieved an imaginative commentary on the rise of hate crimes, Klan-based electoral activity and white supremacist attitudes in the United States. Dist. Electronic Arts Intermix. 1991. 63 min. Video/C MM1064

Living Theater

The Brig.

A film by Jonas Mekas and Adolfas Mekas. Filmed performance of the play by Kenneth H. Brown. Originally released in 1964 by White Line Company as a motion picture. 65 min. Video/C 2987

The Connection.(1961)

Filmed version of a play with the same title by Jack Gelber. Based on the Living Theatre production created in 1961, as directed by Judith Malina and designed by Julian Beck. Film version of the play The Connection, by Jack Gelber. The play is about drug addicts waiting for a heroin dealer to bring the drug necessary for them to make their "connection." To help pass the time, four jazz musicians among the addicts start to play. The film was shot in a drug addict's apartment in New York City. 105 min. Video/C 999:893

Emergency.

In 1968 the experimental film troupe, Living Theatre, returned to America with a repertory of four new productions developed during their years of self-imposed exile in Europe. Their triumphant tour was in tune with the revolutionary aspirations of the late sixties, documented in this extraordinary film. 29 min. Video/C 2988

Paradise Now.

An experimental film in which lines between political action, psychotherapy, tribal ritual and experimental theater are blurred to create a tale of social and esthetic breakthrough. 105 min. Video/C 2986

Signals Through the Flames.

Documentary on the Living Theater. 97 min. Video/C 1438

James Luna

The History of the Luiseno People: La Jolla Reservation, Christmas 1990.

A Native American man makes Christmas phone calls to family members that he will not be with for the holiday, revealing his loneliness and alienation. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 29 min. Video/C 5149

Mabou Mines

Mabou Mines: The First 20 Years.

Discusses, through footage of earlier productions and interviews with ensemble members, the history of this avant-garde theater ensemble. 46 min. Video/C 3396

Dwight Marcus

Newsroom from the West.

"This may be the last new art form to emerge from the 20th Century. It is undeniably the art form that opens the 21st. This is Pulse: what the "beat" movement was to the free-spirited artists of the 1950's, Pulse is to the sound byte-driven millennium." Contents: News from the West: DVD collection mix -- News from the West: Single pulse mix -- H2: DVD collection mix -- H2: Stream of consciousness mix -- One long note: bonus and track. Performed by Chamber of Poets featuring Dwight Marcus and Charles Barth. 12 min. DVD 244

Gordon Matta-Clark

14 Americans: Directions of the 1970s

Gordon Matta-Clark.

Presentations of videotapes of deconstruction of urban environments and documentary films by Matta-Clark. Splitting: Documents the major building cut made by Matta-Clark in a typical one-family house in New Jersey. Bingo/Ninths: In 1974, Matta-Clark made a cut in a house in Niagara Falls in which the artist divided the exterior facade into nine parts. Substrait: In this series of films Matta-Clark explored and documented the underground spaces of New York City. Splitting (1974, b&w and col., si. with English intertitles, 11 min.) -- Bingo/Ninths (1974, col. si., 10 min.) -- Substrait [Underground dailies] (1976, b&w and col.) Croton Aquaduct at Highgate (4 min.); 13th Street Storm sewer and pumping station (5 min.); New York Central Tracks and below ground Central Station (9 min.); Cathedral of St. John the Divine (5 min.); Archer Street extension of the BMT (5 min.); High pressure water tunnel no.3 (11 min.) Video/C 6840

Gordon Matta-Clark.

Presentations of videotapes of deconstruction of urban environments and documentary films by Matta-Clark. Conical intersect: For the Paris Biennial in 1975, Matta-Clark made a major cut shaped like a twisted cone in houses adjacent to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Les Halles in Paris. Paris Underground: In this film Matta-Clark explored underground Paris. The artist shows the complexity of underground spaces with scenes of architectural ruins, car parks, tunnels, ossuaries, cellars, crypts and basements in the Opera district. Etant d'art pour locatair = Conical intersect (1975, col., si, 19 min.) -- Sous-sols de Paris = Paris underground (1977, b&w, in French, 19 min.) Video/C 6841

Intersection Conique: Gordon Matta-Clark

Shows the Matta-Clark installation in Paris where he made a major cut shaped like a twisted cone in houses adjacent to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Les Halles for the Paris Biennial in 1975. Originally filmed in Paris in September, 1975. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 17 min. DVD 7688

Office Baroque

Matta-Clark makes a cut in a five-story commerical building located in front of the Steen, a tourist spot in Antwerp. Tape includes an interview with the artist. Originally produced in 1977. 44 min. DVD 5366

Queens Project

In 1973 Gordon Matta-Clark bought 15 small, unusable odd lots termed "gutterspaces" in Queens and Staten Island at auction. Although the artists collected archival documents relating to the properties, his plans for using them were never realized. This footage, taken two years later, shows Matta-Clark, Betsy Sussler and Jaime Davidovich who went to Queens to document some of the purchases. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 7 min. DVD 7689

The Wall

In 1976, as part of the Akademie der Kunst and Berliner Festwochen exhibition "Soho in Berlin", Gordon Matta-Clark went to Germany with the intention of blowing-up a section of the Berlin wall. Dissuaded by friends from such a suicidal action, the result was the following performance. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 15 min. Video/C MM1187

Taylor Mead Ron Rice Taylor Mead web site Full-text article on beat generation film by Ray Carney

Plates

A film by Gary Goldberg. Performer: Bill Rice, Taylor Mead.Experimental film of nonverbal communication between two gay men as they sit at a kitchen table. c1982. 35 min. Video/C 3257

Ana Mendieta

Selected Filmworks: 1972-81.

A collection of experimental films by the early Cuban artist, Ana Mendieta.

Contents: Untitled (Chicken piece, shot #2), 1972 -- Body tracks (Blood sign #2), 1974 -- Laberinth Silueta, Silueta series (Labyrinth blood imprint), Mexico, 1974 -- Untitled (Grass breathing), 1975 -- Burial of the Nanigo (Woman candle silueta #2, New York show), 1976 -- Candle Ixchell, Black Ixchell series (Black Ixchell Candle Ixchell), 1977 -- Volcan de Arena, Silueta series (Filmworks: Rocas y humo, San Felipe), Mexico, 1980 -- Isla, Iowa, 1981 -- Untitled (Figura que parece Egypta), Cuba, 1981 -- Untitled (Figura, Gunpowder en los cracks), Iowa, 1981. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 33 min. Video/C 5156

Meredith Monk

Book of Days

"'Book of days' takes place primarily in the Middle Ages, but the characters and their concerns are deeply familiar. Monk draws parallels between this age of war, plague and fear of the Apocalypse, with our modern times of racial and religious conflicts, AIDS, and the fear of nuclear annihilation. 'Book of days' has a mythic quality, a sense of displacement; it encourages the viewer to ponder the ultimate fragility of the human experience." Music performed by Meredith Monk, Robert Een, John Eppler, Ching Gonzalez, Andrean Goodman, Wayne Hankin, Naaz Hosseini, Nicky Paraiso, Nurit Tilles , Johanna Arnold, Joan Barber, Timothy Sawyer ; conducted by Wayne Hankin. 1988. DVD 8997

The Films of Meredith Monk

Summary: Book of Days: Imaginary vignettes of medieval town life; Ellis Island: visual images, basically without dialogue, of the immigrants and the ordeals they faced while waiting at Ellis Island to enter the United States at the beginning of the century. 105 min. Video/D 106

Ellis Island

A film about the experiences of immigrants entering America at the turn of the century, 'Ellis Island' was one of the last films shot on location before Ellis Island was restored. Neither documentary nor fiction, Monk describes the non-verbal 'Ellis Island' as a 'ghost story told through the musicality of images.'" Music, Meredith Monk. Voices: Meredith Monk, Robert Een, Julius Eastman, Paul Langland, Andrea Goodman, Monica Solem ; cello solo, Robert Een. 1981. 28 min. DVD 8997; vhs Video/C 3397

Fried Shoes, Cooked Diamonds.

Featuring Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, Peter Orlovsky, Meredith Monk, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman, Miguel Algarin and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Reunion of some leading poets of the "Beat" generation at the Jack Kerouac School for Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute, 1978. 55 min. Video/C1802

Interview with Filmmaker Meredith Monk

In this extensive interview filmmaker Meredith Monk discusses the general principles and inspiration for her film works Ellis Island, and a Book of days. Monk is renowned for creating multi-disciplinary works which dwell in the spaces between music, theatre, and dance: "I work inbetween the cracks, where the voice starts dancing, where the body starts singing, where theater becomes cinema." 2006. 60 min. DVD 8997

Monk(4 American Composers)

Partial Contents: Dolman music -- Travelling quarry -- Ellis Island -- Turtle dreams.

Incorporates performance and conversations with Meredith Monk, an artist of many media, who has transcended the accepted boundaries of vocal song. She is her own composer, choreographer, and filmmaker who blends all of these into a unique style and content of performance. Here she performs with her vocal group. 60 min. Video/C 3406

The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4Composers

Linda Montano

The Seven Stages of Intoxication

By blurring the fine line between art and life, performance artist Linda Montano addresses the problems of post-menopausal women. Through her performance as an alcoholic, she portrays how a woman needs to let go and accept the aging process and establish a new inner self. 1995. 34 min. Video/C MM42

Charlotte Moorman

26'1.1499" for String Player

Jud Yalkut's video realization of Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik's concert performance of John Cage's compositon 26'1.1499" for String Player. In this extraordinary performance, which is manipulated and synthesized by Yalkut, Paik and Moorman, they play Cage's score on a collection of "instruments" that include a pistol, a dish of mushrooms, balloons, a practice aerial bomb, and a telephone call to President Nixon. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 42 min. Video/C MM1051

The Chocolate Cello

A performance piece in which the avant-gardist cellist Charlotte Moorman, known fondly as the "topless cellist," is smeared with chocolate, along with her instrument in New York City on Easter Sunday, 1973. 30 min. Video/C 8158

Rare Performance Documents

Ranging in length from 2 to 8 minutes, these performances are from Nam June Paik's personal archives and date from 1961-1994. Many include collaborations with Charlotte Moorman. Vol. 1: Performance documentation, Aachen, Germany (1965) -- Charlotte Moorman at the Howard Wise Gallery (1969) -- TV bed, the Everson Museum of Art (1972) -- TV cello performance (1973) -- Waiting for commercial (performance, 1972) -- New television workshop performance (1917) -- Vol. 2: Hand and face (1961) -- Fluxus sonata at Anthology Film Archives (1975) -- Violin dragging, Brooklyn, NY (1975) -- Tribute to GM (aka Video Venus) (1978) -- Nam June Paik with The Bad Brains (1991) -- Evening with Nam June Paik at the Kitchen (1994) Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. Video/C MM1050

Video Synthesizer and TV Cello Collectibles: 1965-1971

Contents: Early TV experiments (1965-1968) / Nam June Paik -- Video commune (Beatles from beginning to end) / Nam June Paik -- TV cello premiere / Nam June Paik. Filmed by Jud Yalkut. Charlotte Moorman, TV cello. Charlotte Moorman, TV cello. Video commune filmed in 1970; TV cello premiere filmed in 1971 at the Bonino Gallery in New York City. These rare early collaborative works by Nam June Paik and Jud Yalkut are historically significant as well as remarkably prescient. Recorded between 1965 and 1971, these 'video-films' reveal insights into the evolution of Paik's work and are among the earliest explorations of the interfacing of film and video. Video Commune is Jud Yalkut's documentation of Paik's first interactive television "performance" and also marks the debut of the Paik/Abe Video Synthesizer. The images were generated directly from the synthesizer and mixed with prerecorded Japanese TV commercials with Beatles music. TV cello Premiere is a silent film of Charlotte Moorman in her first performance on Paik's "TV cello," in 1971. Video/C MM1053

Bruce Nauman

Monk

In this film an inverted camera catches Nauman standingat the opposite end of a room, slowly spinning aroundon one foot, first head down and then head up. Thetape is an exercise in the human machine becoming sometype of cog or mechanized weather vane. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study ofContemporary Art) 62 min. Video/C 5148

Elke Allowing the Floor to Rise Up Over Her, Face Up

Presents a performance piece based on a set of mentalexercises devised by Nauman in 1969, in which a liveperformer concentrates on the mental image of sinkinginto the floor or allowing the floor to rise up overhim or her. 1973. 39 min. Video/C MM133

Lip Sync

With the camera held upside down and focused in aclose-up of the artist's mouth, Nauman's lips andtongue articulate the words "lip sync" as the audiotrack shifts in and out of sync with the video. Thedisjunction created between what is seen and heardkeeps the viewer on edge, struggling to attach the sound of the words with the out of kiltermovements of Nauman's mouth. 1969. 57 min. Video/C MM132

Tony Sinking Into the Floor Face Up and Face Down

In this film, a companion to Elke, the performer's taskwas to imagine himself sinking into the floor. Theresulting images portray him stretched out on thefloor, sometimes face up, sometimes face down, in aseries of dissolves. 1973. 56 min. Video/C MM134

Walk with Contrapposto

Nauman focuses his camera down the length of a long,twenty-inch corridor. With his hands clasped behindhis neck and swinging his hips, he animates a classiccontrapposto pose as he walks up and down the lengthof the corridor. 1968. 60 min. Video/C MM135

Wall/floor positions

In this performance piece, Nauman assumes a set of positions placing his body in a series of poses relative to a blank wall and the floor. He then repeats the sequence again away from the wall. 1969. 60 min. Video/C MM131

Claus Oldenburg See Ray Gun Theater

Open Theater

Nightwalk: A Collective Work

Pt. 1. The traveller prepares -- Creature explores -- Journey -- People's indictment -- Now I am -- Men's world and women's world -- Talking -- Dinner with the boss. -- Pt. 2. Sleepworld -- Losing and finding -- Songworld -- Creature imitates -- Battle -- Traveller speaks.

Participants: Members of The Open Theater (Raymond Barry, Shami Chaikin, Ralph Lee, Tom Lillard, Ellen Maddow, Jo Ann Schmidman, Tina Shepard, Paul Zimet).

The Open Theater group in its last performance before disbanding. "Nightwalk" is a collective theater piece; a montage of surreal situations that examine the human condition in worlds both real and fantastic, presenting exaggerations of human pretensions. The "plot" is a journey, liberated from conventional thought, in which human and birdlike creatures weave in and out. Originally broadcast in 1974 on the CBS television series "Camera Three." 56 min. Video/C 5193

The Serpent

Written by Jean Claude van Itallie, in collaboration with the Open Theater ensemble. Credits: Directors, Joseph Chaikin, Roberta Sklar ; producer/director, Jac Venza ; director for television by Sam Silberman.

In the play, The Serpent, episodes from Genesis combined with sequences depicting the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, are intertwined to present the conflict between good and evil. 72 min. Video/C 3240

Terminal: A Collective Work

Contents: State of the dying: the dance of the graves of the dead -- Embalming as required by law -- Runner who never gets started -- Dead come through -- Marie Leveau and the soldier -- Cosmetics -- Initiation -- Responsible one -- Interview -- Executed man and the song -- The dying imagine their judgment. Producer/director, Merrill Brockway. Participants: members of The Open Theater (Raymond Barry, Shami Chaikin, Jo-Ann Schmidman, Tina Shepard, Paul Zimet, Henry Smith). Originally shown on the CBS television show Camera Three in 1970. 28 min. Video/C 5295

Nam June Paik
Fluxus

Danto, Arthur C. "TV and Video."(television art and video art)(Cover Story)(Column) Nation v261, n7 (Sept 11, 1995):248 (6 pages)
Mellencamp, Patricia. "The Old and the New: Nam June Paik." Art Journal v54, n4 (Winter, 1995):41 (7 pages).
Nam June Paik / John G. Hanhardt; with essays by Dieter Ronte ... [et al.]. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art in association with W.W. Norton, c1982. (UCB Main PN1992.8.V5 N3 1982)
Nam June Paik: Video Sculptures. [Copenhagen, Denmark] : Statens Museum for Kunst, 1996. (UCB Main N7369.P35 A4 1996)
Paik, Nam June. Nam June Paik: Video Time, Video Space / herausgegeben von Toni Stooss und Thomas Kellein. Ostfildern-Ruit bei Stuttgart : Edition Cantz, c1991. (UCB Main N7369.P25 A4 1991; UCB Moffitt N7369.P35 A4 1993)
Silver, Kenneth E. "Nam June Paik: Video's Body." Art in America v81, n11 (Nov, 1993):100 (8 pages).

26'1.1499" for String Player

Allan 'n' Allen's Complaint.

The influence of Jewish fathers on their sons and the complexity of familial relationships are explored in this witty, poignant portrait of two artists and their fathers. Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg, and performance artist/sculptor, Allan Kaprow, are the sons who struggle with and against the influences of these patriarchal figures. In this playful, often moving portrait of fathers and sons, the video artists Paik and Kubota subject their content to irreverent temporal, spatial and visual transformations: images multiply and proliferate, time is accelerated or slowed, and the audio is de-synchronized. 1982. 29 min. Video/C 4679

Film Video Works #3.

Contents: Electronic moon, parts 2 and 3 (1967-69, 3 min., sd., b&w and col.) -- Missa of Zen (1967, 3 min, si., b&w and col.) Video art by Nam June Paik and Jud Yalkut recorded between 1967 and 1960, revealing some of Paik's earliest experiments with television and electronic imagery. In Electronic Moon, colorized images of the moon are accompanied by Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade. In Missa of Zen, a TV screen, filmed from an extremely oblique angle, appears as a ghostly sliver at the side of a darkened frame. Isolated in silence and darkness, the TV set slips into the realm of the "unheimlich." Situating mediated America at the crossroads of "missa" (Christian mass) and Zen Buddhism, Paik highlights the connnections between mass culture and the transcendental. Video/C MM1052

Nam June Paik: Avant Garde Harvest.

This documentary discusses the technology as well as the techniques that Nam June Paik uses in his work. Includes collaborations with Laurie Anderson, Allen Ginsberg, Merce Cunningham and Joseph Beuys as well as interviews with Paik himself. 1987. 22 min. Video/C 3400

Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master

Short recollections and statements from many people who knew video artist Nam June Paik and who were influenced by the man and his work, including artists, curators, academics, collaborators, colleagues, friends and family. Many of those interviewed are early video artists. Includes a video-within-a-video performance by Yoko Ono at the Guggenheim Museum in honor of Paik. Featurette video recorded at a memorial and reception for Nam June Paik in New York City on February 3rd, 2006. Additional interviews for the Bonus video were recorded at various locations and events in the months that followed. #1 video artist is a 9 min. version of the featurette. Special features: Skip Blumberg biography, videomaker's statement and references to video art websites. Featurette (47 min.) -- Bonus art video (37 min.) -- #1 video artist (9 min.) Produced and directed by Skip Blumberg. 93 min. DVD 8897

Play It Again, Nam!

A documentary biography of multimedia artist Nam June Paik. Paik plays with images and mixes them up to create another image; he plays endlessly with keyboards, musical or image-enhancing. Artist, engineer, musician of images, he is interested in everything--reception, technology and theory. Included here is an overview of his early work, as well as an examination of his most recent artistic endeavors. 1995. 26 min. Video/C 6146

Rare Performance Documents

Strange Music of Nam June Paik

Contents: Global groove -- Medium is the medium -- Paik meets Beethoven.

Presents Nam June Paik's performance and video art with Charlotte Moorman, John Cage's music and performance. 1975. 27 min. Video/C 5306

TV as a Creative Medium

In May of 1969, the Howard Wise Gallery in New York presented TV as a Creative Medium, the first exhibition in the United States devoted entirely to video as a form of art. Schneider recorded this historical document of the landmark exhibition. Soon after the exhibition Howard Wise closed his gallery and in 1971 founded Electronic Arts Intermix, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of video as a means of creative expression. Nam June Paik's Participation TV -- Paul Ryan's Everyman's Mobius Strip -- Thomas Tadlock's Archetron -- Eric Siegel's Psychedelevision in Color -- Charlotte Moorman's first performance of Paik's TV Bra For Living Sculpture -- Ira Schneider's collaboration with Frank Gillette on the installation Wipe Cycle. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. DVD 7687

Video-film Concert

Video art by Nam June Paik and Jud Yalkut. "Recorded between 1967 and 1972, these "video-films" reveal insights into the evolution of Paik's work in video, performance and installation, and are among the earliest explorations of the interfacing of film and video." Video tape study no. 3 / sound: David Behrman & Kenneth Lerner -- Beatles electroniques / sound, Ken Werner -- Electronic moon no. 2 / sound, Debussy -- Electronic fables -- Waiting for commercials -- Electronic yoga / music by K.S. Narayanaswami. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 35 min. Video/C MM1049

Video Synthesizer and TV Cello Collectibles: 1965-1971

Yoko Ono Fluxus

Cut piece: A Video Homage to Yoko Ono

A film by Lynn Hershman. Cut piece is a performance piece originally written and performed by Yoko Ono in 1964. In this video recreation three female performers dressed in fine party dress kneel in center stage and place a pair a scissors in front of themselves. Members of the audience come up on stage and begin to cut pieces of the performer's clothing. This continues until a performer says stop or until there isn't any more cloth to cut. 16 min. Video/C 2735

He Stands in a Desert (Jonas Mekas)

The Misfits: 30 Years of Fluxus

John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It

Robert Rauschenberg

Open Score

Film of a performance orchestrated by Robert Rauschenberg at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York, Oct. 14, 1966, featuring a tennis match presented as a dance sequence with FM transmitters imbedded in the racket handles. Produced by Experiments in Art and Technology and ARTPIX. DVD 8824

Ray Gun Theater

Claes Oldenburg: The Formative Years

The film begins and ends with sculptor Claes Oldenburg attending one of his favorite events, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Oldenburg discusses his sources of inspiration and his work as he enjoys the inflated balloons, so suggestive of the exaggerated qualities of his own art. The film follows the progress of a commissioned outdoor sculpture, a colosssal baseball mitt. Also includes rare footage of his 1959 "Happenings" offering insight into his irreverent beginnings and artistic adventures. 2001. 52 min. Video/C 9106

Happenings: Ray Gun Theater 1962.

Contents: Store days I, II -- Nekropolis I, II -- Injun I, II -- Voyages I, II -- World's fair I, II.

Ray Gun Theater, a series of ten Happenings, took place in Claes Oldenburg's studio on East Second Street in New York City between February and May 1962. 116 min. Video/C 9098

Martha Rosler

Born to Be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads The Strange Case of Baby M.

Martha Rosler discusses the social and economic implications of surrogate motherhood, using excerpts and quotations from media reports and court records of the Mary Beth Whitehead/Baby M case. 1988. 35 min. Video/C 3082

Losing: A Conversation with the Parents.

This distanced narrative, which approximates a soap opera or a TV interview of bereaved relatives of a victim, confronts two means by which food is used as a weapon: the internalized oppression of self-starvation (anorexia nervosa), and starvation because of poverty and economic domination. Rosler exposes underlying social realities from starvation in Third World countries to the phenomenon of dieting and starvation to create an ideal female self in contemporay American culture. 1977. 20 min.Video/C 5151

Martha Rosler Reads Vogue.

As Rosler leafs through the Vogue Magazine, the ads and the feature articles become indistinguishable. Her axaggerated parody of television commercials for elegant products gradually shifts to direct criticism. 1982. 28 min. Video/C 2193

Semiotics of the Kitchen.

In this visual art piece the filmmaker names a series of alphabetically ordered kitchen utensils while demonstrating their use. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art)1975. 6 min. Video/C 5147 (also on tape Video/C 3181)

Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained.

This chilling tape probes the objectification of women in a technological society. At its core is a long, continuous shot that reveals the part-by-part measurement and evaluation of a woman by a white-coated male examiner and a chorus of three women assistants. The filmmaker asks: How do we come to see ourselves as objects? How do fragmentation and comparison assist in social control? The final sequences of this film which explores the socially dictated feminine self-image, presents re-framed government photos of women being measured, accompanied by a voiceover litany of "crimes against women." (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 40 min. Video/C 5147

San Francisco Mime Troupe

Have You Heard of the San Francisco Mime Troupe?

Interviews with members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a satirical political street theater which began in the 60's, interspersed with footage from the troupe's performances. Producers/directors, Don Lenzer, Fred Wardenburg. 1967 51 min. DVD 3987 (preservation copy); also VHS Video/C 7145

San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Taped for an archive of Bay Area theater. Performed by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the oldest political comedy theater in America. Performers: Wilma Bonet, Dan Chumley, Jesse Moore, Audrey Smith. Director, Joan Holden. 1983. 3/4" UMATIC. Video/C 526

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Carolee Schneemann Haug, Kate. "Femme Experimentale Interviews with Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer, and Chick Strand." Wide Angle 20.1 (1998) 1-19 (UCB/Project Muse subscribers only)

Body Collage

Body Collage is a visceral "movement-event" from 1967, in which Schneemann paints her body with wallpaper paste and molasses, and then runs, leaps, falls into and rolls through shreds of white printer's paper, creating a physicalized corporal collage. "My intention was not simply to collage my body (as an object), but to enact movement so that the collage image would be active, found, not predetermined or posed," writes Schneemann. Originally produced as a film on Sept. 12, 1967. 5 min. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. Video/C MM1061

Carolee Schneemann.

Carolee Schneemann talks about her involvement with the Judson Theater and about her work as a performance artist. 50 min. Video/C 1736

Fuses.

A silent celebration of heterosexual lovemaking. The artist's objective was to make an erotic film, from a woman's point of view, that was not pornographic, as well as to give an equal voice to women's eroticism. 1967. 18 min. Video/C MM451

Meat Joy.

"Meat Joy is an erotic rite -- an excessive, indulgent celebration of flesh as material : raw fish, chicken, sausages, wet paint, transparent plastic, ropes, brushes, paper scrap. Its propulsion is towards the ecstatic -- shifting and turning among tenderness, wildness, precision, abandon; qualities that could at any moment be sensual, comic, joyous, repellent. Physical equivalences are enacted as a psychic imagistic stream, in which the layered elements mesh and gain intensity by the energy complement of the audience. The original performances became notorious and introduced a vision of the sacred erotic." Converted from original film footage of three 1964 performances of Meat Joy in London, Paris and New York City. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 6 min. Video/C MM1060

Souvenir of Lebanon

Combines live color footage of Lebanese and Palestinian villages destroyed by Israeli bombing in 1982-1983, black and white stills of the damage re-shot from newspaper photos, and color slides of peaceful Lebanon from the Lebanese tourist bureau in New York. Souvenir of Lebanon is the video component for the kinetic sculpture War Mop; a flailing motorized mop rises on plexiglass cams and is dropped, slapping the video monitor every eight seconds. The sound on the video recorded layers of reverberation as the mop hit the monitor. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 1983. 6 min. Video/C MM1188

Peter Sellars

Peter Sellars: Exploring the Avant-Garde.

Bill Moyers interviews Sellars as he discusses his controversialcareer as a theatrical producer and his views on the role oftheater in American society. 50 min. Video/C 3467

Survival Research

The Pleasures of Uninhibited Excess: Three Machine Performances by Survival Research Laboratories, 1989-1990. San Francisco.

Contents: Illusions of shameless abundance (San Francisco, May 28, 1989) -- Artspace (San Francisco, July 11 to Aug. 19, 1989) -- A carnival of misplaced devotion (Seattle, June 23, 1990)

Three mechanized presentations, each consisting of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices with humans present only as audience or operators. Includes interviews with creators and spectators of this performance art. 47 min. Video/C 4618

Virtues of Negative Fascination: Five Mechanized Performances.

Contents: Baited trap (Excerpt) -- Deliberately false statements (San Francisco, Oct. 6, 1985) -- Area (N.Y. City, May 5, 1985) -- Extremely cruel practices (Los Angeles, Aug. 11, 1985) -- Club DV8 (San Francisco, June 6, 1986) -- Failure to discriminate (Seattle, May 24, 1986)

Compilation of five performance pieces by Survival Research Laboratories. Includes interviews with the creators of this performance art. All pieces feature industrial sound effects coupled with violent images of destruction and war based on destruction by fire and moving mechanical robots and devices such as guns and tanks. 74 min. Video/C 4617

The Will to Provoke.

Documentary of Survival Research Laboratories' 1988 European tour. Includes commentary by S.R.L. founder/artistic director, Mark Pauline and assistant director/sound designer, Matt Heckert. 42 min. Video/C 5251

Ulay

An Event by Ulay

A performance art piece "exploring the interrelatednessof physical and mental realms" by two early artists, Ulay and Marina Abramovic. Galerie Mike Steiner, Berlin, 1976. (Purchased with Stuart and Gail Buchalter Fund for the Study of Contemporary Art) 26 min. Video/C 5364

Relation Work, 1976-1979: 14 performances

William Wegman

The Best of William Wegman.

A collection of short, funny vignettes created between 1970 and 1978 that demonstrate why Wegman has been called the "Buster Keaton of video." Often utilizing the talents of his assistant (and sometimes pet), the dog Man Ray, Wegman reveals a cunning and unusual sense of humor. 20 min. Video/C 3473

Selected Works, 1970-1978. Dog Baseball.

Selected video works 1970-18: Milk/floor - Stomach song -- Randy's sick -- Pocketbook man -- Talking fish -- Out and in -- Rage and depression -- Massage chair -- Crooked finger/crooked stick -- Deodorant -- Growl -- Spelling lesson -- Drinking milk -- Dog duet -- Starter -- Bad movies -- House for sale -- Horseshoes.

A collection of short, funny vignettes that demonstrate why Wegman has been called the "Buster Keaton of video." Often utilizing the talents of his assistant (and sometimes pet), the dog Man Ray, Wegman reveals a cunning and unusual sense of humor. 22 min. Video/C 5247

Two dogs and a ball, used car salesman, dog biscuit in glass jar(Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S.)

1972, 8 min. Video/C 9403

Video Works, 1970-1999

Compiled by the artist himself in collaboration with Artpix, this collection of 130 films features previously unavailable and newly restored works, many of which Wegman executed in the context of the just-burgeoning medium of video art. Memorable sequences included are "Dog duet", "Milk/floor", "Massage chair" and "Stomach song". Booklet in DVD case includes reprint of 1982 essay, " Wegman's video: funny instead of formal" by Kim Levin and definitive chronology of the complete videos. 236 min. DVD 5384

Robert Whitman

Robert Whitman: Performances from the 1960s

In the 1960s a group of New York painters and sculptors propelled their art into three-dimensional space and created a radical new form of artists' theater. Presented here are performance art pieces created by Robert Whitman that involve interaction of film, lights, sound, live performers, props, and objects. Includes original footage of The American moon (1960) and Flower (1963), short documentaries about the works and interviews with contemporaries. A recent performance of Prune Flat (1965) is accompanied by an interview with Whitman about the piece. Also: Presents Ghost (2002), Whitman's latest theater work. Artpix notebooks. c2003. DVD 1583

Hannah Wilke

Gestures

A series of performance-based works in which Wilke faces the camera in extreme close-up and performs repetitive or durational physical actions. At times she kneads and pulls her skin as if it were sculptural material. Often her gestures -- rubbing her hands over her face, smiling so hard that she appears to be grimacing, sticking out her tongue -- take on a loaded significance when seen in the context of gender performance. 1974. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 36 min. Video/C MM1178

Philly

Produced for German television, Philly documents a 1976 performance at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in which Wilke interacts with Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass. The piece juxtaposes behind-the-scenes dialogue and preparations with the performance itself, showing us a playful Wilke. Originally produced in 1976 by Rosemarie Stenzel-Quast, I Sa Lo and Hannah Wilke. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 32 min. Video/C MM1177

Robert Wilson Notes on Deafman Glance, Einstein on the Beach, the Civil WarS by Carla Blank, UCB Performance, the Living Art Video/C 3471

Absolute Wilson

A look at one of experimental theater's most influential figures, who collaborated on works with people such as Tom Waits and Philip Glass. Explores his life from his upbringing in Waco, Texas to the way of life he brought to the screen. 58 min. Video/C 3419

Deafman Glance: A Work for Television

This haunting work tells a stark and stylized story of murder, using time and space, light and movement, and isolated sound in place of spoken words. The ritualistic action is both dreamlike and sinister. A somber, menacing woman washes white dishes and a gleaming carving knife, and then slowly attacks first one yong boy and then another. 26 min. Video/C 4682

Einstein on the Beach: The Changing Image of Opera

Through performance and rehearsal footage and interviews with composer Philip Glass and designer/director Robert Wilson, film examines the opera Einstein on the Beach. Glass and Wilson explain some of their structural choices and the concepts behind the opera which is a poetical interpretation of Albert Einstein. 58 min. Video/C 3419

Robert Wilson and the Civil WarS

9:35 Video/C 4346

Wooster Group See Elizabeth LeCompte

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Art/Photography Separate Art/Photography videography

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Other

A Crack in the Tube

A collection of short films and videorecordings that illustrate the images television injects into modern life, especially those of women, and their social effects. Includes three contemporary video productions, a commercial of the 1950s, and a Nicaraguan game show.

Contents: Made for TV / by Tom Rubnitz and Ann Magnuson -- Betty Furness for Westinghouse -- Kiss the girls, make them cry / by Dara Birnbaum -- Aqui en esta esquina / Sistema Sandinista de Television -- Betty Furness for Westinghouse --Joan does Dynasty / conceived/written, produced and performed by Joan Braderman. 90 min. Video/C 3766

Fact is Stranger Than Fiction

Contents: Illusions / produced, written and directed by Julie Dash -- Kleenex Napkin's Cling like cloth -- Semiotics of the Kitchen / Martha Rosler -- Design for dreaming / M.P.O. Productions -- Possibly in Michigan / written & directed by Cecelia Condit -- Art world wizard / by Carole Ann Klonarides, Michael Owen -- Leaving the 20th century / a videotape by Max Almy. 90 min. Video/C 3181

The East Village Other (EVO): Electric Newspaper, Hiroshima Day, USA vs. Underground.[sound recording]

Contents: Luci's wedding (Plastic Clock Radio) -- If I had a half a mind (Steve Weber) -- Gossip (Gerard Malanga, Ingrid Superstar) -- Noise (the Velvet Underground) -- Jazz improv (Marion Brown, Scott Holt, Ron Jackson) -- Mantras (Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky) -- Luci's wedding (Plastic Clock Radio) -- Love and ashes (Tuli Kupferberg and Viki Pollon with Peter Rawson on guitar) -- The free lance pall bearers -- Silence (Andy Warhol). Sound/D 187

Gang of Souls

William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull, Jim Carroll, John Giorno, Gregory Corso, Diane Diprima [sic], Ed Sanders, Anne Waldman, Henry Rollins, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch. Poetry and prose, with interviews of American authors and poets by Winchester Chimes, Tom Becker and Kathryn Simon. 60 min. Video/C 4345

Its Clean, It Just Looks Dirty

Trust in the Lord / Cabaret Voltaire (5:55) -- Girl who lives on Heaven Hill / Husker Du (5:00) -- Two excerpts from Eyes Without Blood / Diamanda Galas(4:28) -- Sand / Einsturzende Neubauten (4:00) -- Energy and How To Get It / Robert Frank; Rudy Wurlitzer; Gary Hill (14:20) -- Scum & Slime / John Giorno Band (4:04) -- Heard the News / David Johansen (4:18) -- Excerpts directed by Howard Brookner / Robert Wilson and the Civil WarS (9:35) -- A Screw / Swans (3:30) -- Unclean / Psychic TV (3:30) -- No Smoking in This Theater / John Waters (:39). 60 min. Video/C 4346

Persistence of Vision. 1, Monitoring the Media.

Contents: Why I got into TV / Irene Segalove -- Television delivers people / Richard Serra, Carlota Fay Schoolman -- Three transitions / Peter Campus --The President's world / Gorilla Tapes -- Excerpts and euphoria / Edward Mowbray -- The pastrami sandwich / Irene Segalove -- Dragnet kiss / Irene Segalove -- Composite news composite / Nancy Burson -- The eternal frame / Ant Farm, T. R. Uthco. The first of a series of videodiscs that present examples of some of the best recent video art including parodies, political analysis, computer animation, unusual narrative forms and other elements that exploit the power of video. This first volume presents nine video works that portray broadcast television as a tool of commerce and state power. 58 min. Video/D 113

Persistence of Vision. 2, Outside the Lines.

Contents: Sunstone / Ed Emshwiller -- The space between the teeth / Bill Viola -- Cartes postales / Cahen, Huber and Longuet -- Sabda / Don Reeves --East/West / Su-Chen Hung -- Cartes postales / Cahen, Huber and Longuet -- Arcade / Lyn Blumenthal, Carol Ann Klondarides, Ed Pashke -- Ich Mache die Schmerz-Probe / Marcel Odenbach -- Fetishistic scopophilia / Alicia Nogueira -- Videoflashes / Michel Jaffrennou. -- Ear to the ground / John Sanborn, Kit Fitzgerald, David van Tieghen. The second of a series of videodiscs that present examples of some of the best recent video art including parodies, political analysis, computer animation, unusual narrative forms and other elements that exploit the power of video. This second volume presents a collection of video art pieces that explore the intrinsic aesthetic of the video medium. 59 min. Video/D 114

Persistence of Vision. 3, New Narrative.

Contents: Accidents in the home / Graham Young -- Chanoyu / Dalibor Martinis, Sanja Ivekovic -- The West is alive (Der Westen lebt) / Klaus vom Bruch, Heike-Melba Fendel -- L.A. nickel / Branda Miller -- Dogs (Back and forth) / William Wegman -- Le Train / Francois Girard -- The woman who went too far / Colin Campbell --Possibly in Michigan / Cecilia Condit. The third of a series of videodiscs that present examples of some of the best recent video art including parodies, political analysis, computer animation, unusual narrative forms and other elements that exploit the power of video. This third volume is a collection of video art pieces in which some new storytellers continue to expand the vocabulary of narrative through the innovative use of audio-visual forms. 59 min. Video/D 115

Raindance: Media Primers

Contents: Paul Ryan's Proto Media Primer (1970, 16 min.) -- Ira Schneider's Media Primer (1970, 23 min.) -- Michael Shamberg's Media Primer (1971, 17 min.) Raindance's Media Primers reflect the group's iconoclastic theories of television and video, and their engagement with alternative and mass media, pop culture and the counter-culture. The themes addressed -- media manipulation, the camera's role in modifying individual behavior -- illustrate their experimentation with the technological and conceptual underpinnings of 1/2-inch portable video. Paul Ryan's Proto Media Primer includes scenes of Abbie Hoffman awaiting the verdict from the Chicago 7 trial and ironic man-on-the-street interviews. Merging alternative video and mass media, Ira Schneider's Media Primer juxtaposes cultural indicators -- television commercials, news footage, and Portapak documentation of countercultural events such as the Altamount rock concert. In Michael Shamberg's Media Primer, rhetoric and gestures are skewered as he examines the political structure of alternative media. 56 min. Video/C MM1170

Two Moon July.

Produced for The Kitchen by Carlota Schoolman. Contents: 1. Artist warm up -- 2. Difficult listening / Laurie Anderson -- 3. Reports from L.A. / David Byrne -- 4. Olympic fragments / Ken Fitzgerald, John Sanborn -- 5. Laurie Anderson -- 6. O superman / Laurie Anderson -- 7. Damnation of Faust / Dana Birnbaum -- 8. Boating / John and Evan Lurie -- 9. Inspiration / Bill T. Jones -- 10. Sexual metaphors -- 11. Stories, myths, ironies / Michel Auder -- 12. Hatsu-Yume : first dream / Bill Viola -- 13. Fui loaco / Arto Lindsay, Toni Nogueira -- 14. Red Italy / Eric Mitchell -- 15. The red tapes / Vito Acconci -- 16. Atlantic / George Lewis, Gregory Miller -- 17. Hemisphere / Molissa Fenley -- 18. Tour de pijama / Arto Lindsay, Toni Nogueira -- 19. Ash get off that cigarette / Arto Lindsay, Toni Nogueira -- 20. Clonetics -- 21. America is waiting / Bruce Conner -- 22. Mad rush / Philip Glass. Credits: Director, Tom Bowes ; producer, Carlota Schoolman ; visual art installations, Jonathan Borofsky, Brian Eno, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo ; film, Bruce Conner, Eric Mitchell ; video, Vito Acconci, Michel Auder, Dara Birnbaum, Kit Fitzgerald, Gregory Miller, John Sanborn, Bill Viola ; camera, Ed Bowes ; editing, Tom Bowes, Steve Giuliano. 80 min. Video/C 3399

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Avant-garde and experimental film

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