Early Video Art

Early Video Art is a collection of over 200 titles that are central to an understanding of the historical development of video art. This collection includes, but is not limited to, many titles from the original Castelli-Sonnabend collection, the first and most prominent collection of video art assembled in the United States. All of the work in this collection was produced between 1968 and 1980. These works represent important examples of the first experiments in video art, and include conceptual and feminist performances recorded on video, experiments with the video signal, and "guerilla" documentaries representing a counter-cultural view of the historical events of the 1960s and 70s. Many of these tapes represent a desire for a radically redefined television experience that is centered on the innovative, the personal, the political and the non-commercial.

John Baldessari Inventory 1972 \| 23:34 “In Baldessari’s wonderful Inventory, the artist presents to the camera for thirty minutes an accumulation of indiscriminate and not easily legible objects arranged in order of increasing size and accompanied by a deadpan description—... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: performance, video history	Michael Smith It Starts at Home 1982 \| 25:00 Tapping into cable because of his lousy reception, Mike gets more than he bargained for as he unwittingly becomes trapped in the medium—the “star” of his own cable TV show. Due to an incomprehensible mishap, Mike’s rewired TV now transmits his... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: family, media analysis, performance	Videofreex Jerusalem Tapes: Second... 1950 \| 33:09 During Videofreex member David Cort's travels to Jerusalem, a scene was shot in a hospital where a female patient is having electrodes attached to her body. The cameraman gets on the cot and has the electrodes attached to him as they talk about... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: documentation, film or videomaking, health, jewish
Videofreex Jerusalem Tapes:... 1950 \| 34:06 David Cort of the Videofreex travels to Jerusalem. This tape contains raw footage of him as he is taken on a tour through a poor neighborhood by a group of young men. There is talk of the Israeli Black Panther Party, and of drug dealers and... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: activism, documentation, expedition/travel, film or videomaking, history, jewish	Dara Birnbaum Kiss the Girls: Make... 1979 \| 07:00 Using selected details of TV’s Hollywood Squares, Birnbaum constructs an analysis of the coded gestures and “looks” of the actors, including Eileen Brennen and Melissa Gilbert. Birnbaum exposes television as an agent of cultural mimicry... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: feminism, media analysis, video history	Videofreex Lanesville Overview I 1972 \| 32:18 "Between March 1972 and February 1977, the Videofreex aired 258 television broadcasts from a home-built studio and jerry-rigged transmitter in an old boarding house they rented in the tiny Catskill Mountain hamlet of Lanesville. It was a... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: activism, documentation, family, film or videomaking, future/technology, portrait
Videofreex Lanesville TV... 1972 \| 18:40 Videotaped on August 13th 1972, this tape features a number of scenes shot for Lanesville TV, including the Videofreex at the Catskill Game Farm shooting footage of the animals. There are some oddball images… a woman on an exercise machine, and... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: animals, tv production, youth/childhood	Barbara Aronofsky... Barbara Latham... 2001 \| 1:05:00 The five videos featured here investigate video as a tool for storytelling and the construction of alternate identities. Ultimately Latham concludes that video is an unsatisfactory and cumbersome tool useful only for the creation of dislocated... Collection: Single Artist Compilations, Early Video Art Tags: body, feminism, video history, videoworks	Suzanne Lacy Learn Where the Meat... 1976 \| 14:20 A classic feminist video, Learn Where the Meat Comes From depicts how “gourmet carnivore tastes take on a cannibalistic edge. This parody of a Julia Child cooking lesson collapses the roles of consumer and consumed: Lacy instructs us in... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: feminism, performance, video history

John Baldessari Inventory 1972 \| 23:34 “In Baldessari’s wonderful Inventory, the artist presents to the camera for thirty minutes an accumulation of indiscriminate and not easily legible objects arranged in order of increasing size and accompanied by a deadpan description—... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: performance, video history	Michael Smith It Starts at Home 1982 \| 25:00 Tapping into cable because of his lousy reception, Mike gets more than he bargained for as he unwittingly becomes trapped in the medium—the “star” of his own cable TV show. Due to an incomprehensible mishap, Mike’s rewired TV now transmits his... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: family, media analysis, performance	Videofreex Jerusalem Tapes: Second... 1950 \| 33:09 During Videofreex member David Cort's travels to Jerusalem, a scene was shot in a hospital where a female patient is having electrodes attached to her body. The cameraman gets on the cot and has the electrodes attached to him as they talk about... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: documentation, film or videomaking, health, jewish
Videofreex Jerusalem Tapes:... 1950 \| 34:06 David Cort of the Videofreex travels to Jerusalem. This tape contains raw footage of him as he is taken on a tour through a poor neighborhood by a group of young men. There is talk of the Israeli Black Panther Party, and of drug dealers and... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: activism, documentation, expedition/travel, film or videomaking, history, jewish	Dara Birnbaum Kiss the Girls: Make... 1979 \| 07:00 Using selected details of TV’s Hollywood Squares, Birnbaum constructs an analysis of the coded gestures and “looks” of the actors, including Eileen Brennen and Melissa Gilbert. Birnbaum exposes television as an agent of cultural mimicry... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: feminism, media analysis, video history	Videofreex Lanesville Overview I 1972 \| 32:18 "Between March 1972 and February 1977, the Videofreex aired 258 television broadcasts from a home-built studio and jerry-rigged transmitter in an old boarding house they rented in the tiny Catskill Mountain hamlet of Lanesville. It was a... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: activism, documentation, family, film or videomaking, future/technology, portrait
Videofreex Lanesville TV... 1972 \| 18:40 Videotaped on August 13th 1972, this tape features a number of scenes shot for Lanesville TV, including the Videofreex at the Catskill Game Farm shooting footage of the animals. There are some oddball images… a woman on an exercise machine, and... Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: animals, tv production, youth/childhood	Barbara Aronofsky... Barbara Latham... 2001 \| 1:05:00 The five videos featured here investigate video as a tool for storytelling and the construction of alternate identities. Ultimately Latham concludes that video is an unsatisfactory and cumbersome tool useful only for the creation of dislocated... Collection: Single Artist Compilations, Early Video Art Tags: body, feminism, video history, videoworks	Suzanne Lacy Learn Where the Meat... 1976 \| 14:20 A classic feminist video, Learn Where the Meat Comes From depicts how “gourmet carnivore tastes take on a cannibalistic edge. This parody of a Julia Child cooking lesson collapses the roles of consumer and consumed: Lacy instructs us in... Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: feminism, performance, video history

Early Video Art

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