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.
  Originally made during 1976-77 and re-mastered in March 2005, this selection contains a mix of visual jokes, conceptual humor and performance. Wegman "dialogs" with himself, close-ups of his mouth and teeth taking on different characteristics and...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: body, humor, performance |
From A to Z in this mock cooking-show demonstration Rosler 'shows and tells' the ingredients of the housewife's day. She offers an inventory of tools that names and mimics the ordinary with movements more samurai than suburban. Rosler's slashing...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: feminism, gender, language, performance, video history |
A primer in satellite system operation, Send/Receive extends the critique of media as commodity by asking questions concerning the people's right to access satellites. The objective of Send/Receive was specifically to connect...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: media analysis, television, video history |
In this spoof program produced for Lanesville TV, the premise is that a “Sheik” has come to buy all the land in Lanesville. Videofreex member Carol Vontobel reports that the sheik (Davidson Gigliotti), escorted by his real estate agent (Parry...
Collection: Videofreex Archive, Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: history, humor, performance, tv production |
Shifted From the Side is conceptually identical to To And Fro... and was probably made the same afternoon. The object used to demonstrate five possibilities of what could—but not necessarily should—be the artwork is a pack of...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: video history |
"There are three scenes in this work, all reflecting a changing sense of time. Each has a voiceover soundtrack with a similar structure, but with different information. Some of the comments presume that the viewer is privy to information which is...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: city, conceptual art, media analysis, video history |
Adopting the movements of various animals Forti begins the performance by walking hypnotically in circles. She falls to the floor and begins a cycle of walking and crawling that becomes an open metaphor for evolution and aging. Through the course...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: aging, body, performance, video history |
Calling for oil like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, Son Of Oil is a tale of the well-greased machine of the mind breaking down. Nuts fall off; thoughts turn bad; things donÕt work. Balancing panic and hopelessness, Oursler...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: mental landscape, video history |
Acconci literally feels the music in this tape as he lays down on speakers playing jazz. The sound pulses through his body while a collaborator massages his nude back in time with the music, occasionally striking Acconci like a rhythm instrument...
Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles Tags: performance, video history |
