From: Matt Teichman (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Sep 05 2005 - 14:28:50 PDT
Fred Camper wrote:
> I think this is an excellent point. I've seen many of these, and while
> I like a few of the artists who work this way (Shirin Neshat being
> one), even their work pales besides the best avant-garde film, while
> much of what I see in the way of museum video installations is
> unwatchably inarticulate. Long takes of the subject seem as unthought
> out as the framing, both looking as if the montage of Eisenstein and
> the brilliantly conceived long takes of Dreyer and so many others had
> never happened. Never even mind avant-garde film; they look as if they
> were made in abject ignorance of all of film history.
Fred: maybe this is a bit of a redundant question, but I wonder what you
think of Bill Viola's work? _Anthem_, for example, strikes me as a
pretty "cinematically-literate" piece, whether or not you're a fan.
On a possibly tangential note, Tony Conrad has also made some stunning
video pieces, characterized by (among other things) an acute awareness
of the televisual aesthetic and its mode of address. I've never seen
anything quite like them. Maybe now that he's on the list, he can tell
us where we might be able to rent them!
-Matt
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