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 GodsA 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 SpacePeter 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 1971-1975Presents 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 DocumentaryFeaturing: 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 LivingThe 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 MenPerformers: 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 AchillesPerformers: 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 FishPerformers: 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
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
Flux ConcertOn 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. 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
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 TravelA "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
Coco Fusco
La Conversacion Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gomez-Pena. Video/C 7697
The Couple in the Cage: a Guatinaui Odyssey
Directed and produced by Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia; Performers: Guillermo Gomez-Peña, 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
Eu gosto de garotas de uniforme (Me gustan chicas en uniforme) (I like girls in uniform) Extras. Performances (66:21 min.) -- Bare life study #1, Sao Paulo, 2005 (9:14 min.) -- Statements. Bare life study #1 (4:20 min.) ; a/k/a Mrs. george Gilbert (17:50 min.) ; Dolores from 10 to 10 (12:31 min.) ; Els segadors (15:15 min.) ; Rights of passage (4:56 min.) ; Maiakovskii (2:16 min.)
Filmmaker Wagner Morales borrows elements from the work of American artist Coco Fusco, fusing them with ordinary fragments of her everyday life, to introduce viewers to the complex realm of Fusco's artistic practices and theories. In this documentary film, Fusco revisits her trajectory as professor, activist, performer and videomaker, and discusses culture clash, a recurring issue in her personal experience. Bonus films (ca. 66 min.) include statements on her well-known works and films of her performances. 2005. 115 min. DVD 9527
Guillermo Gomez-Peña
Border BrujoBorder Brujo sitting at an altar decorated with a kitsch collection of cultural fetish items, and wearing a border patrolman's jacket decorated with buttons, bananas, beads, and shells, presents a performance which addresses the problems, frustrations, discrimination, and stereotyping commonly faced by Mexican-Americans in the U.S. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 52 min. 1990. DVD 9667; vhs Video/C 3455
Borderstasis, A Video DiaryA poetic performance video diary about the impossibility of "revealing" one's self in stormy times such as ours. It reflects the intricate connections between performance and everyday life, exploring language, identity, love, nostalgia and activism amidst the California apocalypse. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 1998. DVD 9667
La Conversacion Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gomez-Peña. Video/C 7697
The Couple in the Cage: a Guatinaui Odyssey
Directed and produced by Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia; Performers: Guillermo Gomez-Peña, 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
A Declaration of Poetic DisobedienceA video version of a 2004-05 performance that attempts to find a post-9/11 voice and place for alternative viewpoints and radical imaginations. The performance maps out a poetic cartography in order to establish symbolic connections between the artist's psyche, body, language, dreams and aspirations, and those of his contemporaries. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 2005. 15 min. DVD 9667
The Great Mojado Invasion, Part 2 the 2nd U.S.-Mexico War The video begins at the inception of a second U.S.-Mexico war. This time, contrary to history, Mexico is victorious. The nation-state as we currently know it has collapsed. The ex-U.S. of A. has been fragmented into a myriad of micro-republics loosely controlled by a multi-racial junta and governed by a Chicano prime minister appointed as El Gran Vato. "Spanglish" is the official language, treating the monolingual viewer as a "nomadic minority." Panicked by the "New Borders," Anglo militias desperately try to recapture the "Old Order." The "New Aztlan Regime" propagandizes itself by satirically depicting Anglos with the same stereotypes currently utilized against Latinos: a portrayal of dumb, lazy, violent, drug-taking lunatics who are demonized as "alien" invaders from outer space. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 1995. 27 min. DVD 9667
El Naftazteca: Cyber-Aztec TV for 2000 A.D.Interrupting the nightly news in an act of guerrilla television, Gomez-Peña returns to the persona of a Chicano-Aztec veejay to elaborate the complications of American identity. This post-NAFTA Cyber Aztec pirate commandeers the television signal from his underground "Vato bunker", where virtual reality meets Aztec ritual. Gomez-Peña embodies the doubly radical Chicano performance artist, delivering radical ideas through a radical form of entertainment. With guest performances by Roberto Sifuentes and Ruben Martinez. Edited version of the live telecast. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 1995. 58 min. DVD 9667
La Pocha nostra en accion: Performance as Radical Pedagogy. The Brown Sheep Project In 2002, La Pocha Nostra and Guillermo Gomez-Peña; were invited to conduct a workshop at Columbia College in Chicago with 15 students and faculty from different departments. At the end of the two-week workshop, they created a large-scale performance-installation with the participants. Canadian video artist Liz Singer was invited to shoot the entire process, from the early workshop exercises, meant to connect students with their bodies and build a sense of community, up to opening night. In this documentary the working methods and radical pedagogy of La Pocha Nostra are revealed. Performed by Gomez-Peña; an Isaac Artenstein film. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 2003. 20 min. DVD 9667
La Pocha nostra en accion: Performance as Radical Pedagogy. No Homeland/No Fear Made from the outtakes of a PBS-commissioned documentary on "Latino arts" in the United States. Features "Re:Group," a loose association of San Francisco-based performance artists who created "a multi-ethnic/multi-generational performance lab" in response to the perils of 9/11 and the dangers of the Bush era.
Performed by Gomez-Peña; an Isaac Artenstein film. Dist.: Video Data Bank. 2004. 13 min. DVD 9667
Son of Border Crisis Monologues: 1. Son of border crisis -- 2. El post-mojado -- 3. The Mexican fly -- 4. Dear Californian -- 5. Employer sanctions -- 6. The year of the yellow spider -- 7. The year of the Hispanic.
In these seven short performance art monologues, Gomez-Peña confronts Mexican-American culture clashes, stereotypes, and immigrants. Speaking through a bullhorn or on the airwaves of mock-station Radio Latino FM, he broadcasts a message that will not be silenced. Dist.: Video Data Bank.. 2003-1990. 16 min. DVD 9667
The Temple of Confessions This itinerant performance/installation presented two "end-of-the-century saints" from an "unknown border religion", in search of sanctuary across the United States while gathering confessions on intercultural fears and desires. Designed as a theater of mythos and cultural pathologies, the "Temple" proposes a ceremonial space for the reflection on ethnic, racial, and gender prejudices. It is divided in three main areas: the "Chapel of Desires", displaying "El Pre-Columbian Vato" or "holy gang member" (performed by Roberto Sifuentes); the "Chapel of Fears", displaying "San Pocho Aztlaneca" (a "hyper-exoticized curio shop shaman for spiritual tourists," performed by Guillermo Gomez-Peña), and an enigmatic funerary vignette composed by performance objects. Paintings of other "hybrid santos" hang from the walls, two "nuns" ("chola/nun" Norma Medina and "dominatrix nun" Michelle Ceballos) take care of the temple, and visitors can leave their "confessions"; the most revealing ones are incorporated into the installation soundtrack for future performances. Dist.: Video Data Bank.. 2003-1990. 16 min. DVD 9667
Los videograffitis Guillermo Gomez-Peña invited film and video-maker colleagues from around the world to re-envision his own performance works through a collaborative editing process. This segment contains ten performance videos selected from Ethno-techno: los videograffitis, volume one of the series.
Dist.: Video Data Bank.. 2003-2004. 29 min. DVD 9667
Spalding Gray
Swimming to CambodiaA 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 SquareThe 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 CirclesWith: 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 LakeFeaturing 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
Pine Barrens
Pine Barrens is concerned with evoking through film a barren wilderness in south-central New Jersey. The camera is always in motion -- tracking, pivoting, and walking through the landscape. Though they are never seen in the film, the voices of the local people, the 'Pineys,' are heard relating their feelings about the land, their attitudes about city life, their myths of the area, etc. their voices and the music of 'Bill Patton's Pine Barrens Trio' add a psychological dimension to the landscape. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 30 min. 1975. Video/C MM1194
Points of view: Clocktower
A video that originated with an installation at the Clocktower in New York in May 1974. In the installation, four monitors were placed facing out N,E,S,W at eye level in the center of the room. Four tapes, previously shot from the four windows through a static camera with a movable circular tube in front of the lens, were played back simultaneously on all four monitors, revealing passing circular glimpses of the world outside. So the outside was brought inside through video, and this inside 'looking' led to a recomposition of video (a double take) when the actual outside was confronted. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 44 min. 1974. Video/C MM1192
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
Underscan Holt's terrain is her Aunt Ethel's home in New Bedford, Massachusetts, presented in still images and excerpts from letters to the artist from her aunt. Holt pays particular attention to her aunt's story of aging, altering the images by "underscanning" them, a technical process that compresses the edges of the video image, building an intrinsic limitation into the tape: the compression of time and personal history represented by the images and narrative. This process echoes Holt's reading, slightly distorting and compressing the information in the letters as she presents them. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 1973-74. 21 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 TVPerformer: 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
DuetIn 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
MirageWrites 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
SongdelayPerformed 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 RollUsing 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
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 Luiseño People: La Jolla Reservation, Christmas 1990A Native American man makes Christmas phone calls to family members that he will not be with for the holiday, revealing his loneliness and alienation. Written and performed by James Luna; produced and directed by Isaac Artenstein. 29 min. Video/C 5149
Kathleen McHugh. Biography. "Profane Illuminations: History and Collaboration in James Luna and Isaac Artenstein's The History Of The Luiseño People." Summer 2008. Vol. 31, Iss. 3; pg. 429, 33 pgs
UC users only
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 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
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-ClarkShows 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 BaroqueMatta-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 ProjectIn 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
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 MonkIn 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: 4ComposersFour 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
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 PlayerJud 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 DocumentsRanging 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: 1965-1971Contents: 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
See also: Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S.
Bruce Nauman: Make Me ThinkFeatures 60 works of art from the American conceptual artist Bruce Nauman, who uses film, video, neon, sculpture and performance to create works that reflect on love, violence, art and the art viewer. Includes commenting by Leo Castelli, Robert Storr, Joseph Kosuth and Joan Simon, who provide different insights into the work of this reclusive artist. Also features early film projections and video installations. Written and directed by Heinz Peter Schwerfel. 1997. 70 min. DVD 9977
MonkIn 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 PlayerJud 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
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 MasterShort 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 DocumentsRanging 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
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 ConcertVideo 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: 1965-1971Contents: 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
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
Open ScoreFilm 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
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
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
SnowAn unedited documentation of the 1967 group performance, which was built out of Schneemann's outrage and sorrows over the atrocities of the Vietnam War. An ethereal stage environment combining colored light panels, film projection, torn collage, hanging sacks of colored water, "snow", crusted branches, rope, foil and foam was the set and setting in which an audience-activated electronic switching system controlled elements of the performance/installation. Performed January-February 1967 at the Martinique Theatre, New York. 17 min. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. Video/C MM1227
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
Viet Flakes Short film without narration composed from a collection of Vietnam atrocity images, compiled over five years, from foreign magazines and newspapers. Schneemann uses the 8mm camera to "travel" within the photographs, producing a volatile animation. Broken rhythms and visual fractures are heightened by a sound collage by James Tenney, which features Vietnamese religious chants and secular songs, fragments of Bach, and '60s pop hits. Dist.: Electronic Arts Intermix. 1965.
7 min. DVD 9543
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 UlayA 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 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
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, 1970-1999Compiled 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 WilsonA 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 OperaThrough 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
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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 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
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 DirtyTrust 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,