The Amazing Bow Wow

Lynda Benglis, Stanton Kaye

1976 | 00:30:07 | United States | English | Color | Mono | 4:3 | Video

Collection: Early Video Art, Single Titles

Tags: Performance, Video History

Made with Stanton Kaye, and the only Lynda Benglis video with a discernible plot, The Amazing Bow-Wow follows the adventures of a talking, hermaphroditic dog given to Rexina and Babu by a carnival barker. Rexina and Babu soon decide to make the dog a sideshow act hoping to earn their fortune. Babu eventually becomes jealous of Rexina's devotion to the dog and one night attempts to castrate it, accidentally cutting off its tongue. The dog's head becomes hideous and skeletal, ruining its sideshow career and the profits.

A farce of the Oedipal complex, Bow-Wow comments on the moral position of artists in society—the way in which artists are exploited by the media as oddities on the level of sideshow attractions.

This title was in the original Castelli-Sonnabend video art collection.

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