Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos

The artist swings a live-set small game trap near his extended other hand. The trap swings ominously: will it snap his fingers? The end comes quickly!This title is also available on Sympathetic…

The artist uses wire to suspend a block of ice in a pit-like industrial space. He swings the ice block, which is lit by a similarly swinging light bulb on a separate pendulum.Kos places small game…

In this early black and white, reel-to-reel video, small game traps are set to catch the rain.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

A two-headed calf died when one head atrophied. It became a trophy that the artist used as a source for this 16mm film transferred to video.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The…

"A major influence for generating ideas for me was not what I could contrive on my desktop, but being open and receptive to “accident”. For instance, one evening in 1972 while typing a syllabus for…

Produced in 1974, and restaged in 2002, near Pilot Butte in southwestern Wyoming.The artist makes a pilot light using ice, which he has fashioned into a magnifying lens to start a small fire.This…

Ice is fashioned into a magnifying lens and it is used to start a fire. Created in 1974 and restaged 2004. This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

The seemingly groundless debate as to whether a river is "riley" or "roily" can be interpreted as an example of language's descriptive failure. A shouting match over how to describe the river has no…

When I look for the lightning, it never strikes. When I look away, it does. Filmed inside a car, this tape focuses on observation of natural phenomena, presenting the obverse of the, "If a tree falls…

Taking its title from the sea nymphs in Homer’s Odyssey—the treacherous spirits whose sweet voices lured sailors to their death upon the rocks—Sirens presents four hallucinatory scenes, visual puns…

On a gradually inclined plane, attempts are made to scale the rise, and rubber shoe marks leave evidence of the point where all of humanity fails.This title is also available on Sympathetic …

A Yosemite gargoyle climbs two gothic arches.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

A Yosemite gargoyle climbs two gothic arches.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos. 

Twelve church bells are rung daily for 30 days in a sculptural setting at the Capp Street Project in San Francisco. Ringers progress from practice sessions on beer bottles to a full-scale ring.This…

After a failed attempt to melt down ballistic missiles into bells and site them in the city they had once targeted, 100 homing pigeons were used as metaphors, each carrying a small bell and capsule…

75 people speak 50 languages sometimes simultaneously.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

When everyone has forgotten the romantic refrains of the Internationale sung in different languages, Pablito, a blue front Amazon parrot, capable of living to 100 years old, will remember. He rings…

Caught by video on a mountainside, Swiss cows compose and orchestrate a bell sonata.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

Filled to capacity, each car of a 157 car train sounds a percussive note in this homage to John Coltrane. And not one coal train, but two.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The…

On the narrow stairway that exits Paul Kos’s Tunnel\Chapel, where his 27-channel Chartres Bleu installation is housed, Kos writes with both hands on opposite walls, recording the narrative of Noah’s…

Within the historic district of Saida, Lebanon, a boy learns to capture light.Cast: Husni Tutunji Camera: Abdallah al-Bunni

Neither a Sierra snowfield nor a tunnel proves to be the perfect studio space for the improvement of one’s craft. Only practice counts.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The…

The combination of a found site (an old power station in Norway), and a found object (a log) and a found instrument ( a wooden floor) produce a found sound in this acoustically alive action. This…

Relying on the magic echo found in an old power Station in Norway, the artist whistles and marches to the Internationale, a May Day workers’ song. This title is also available on Sympathetic …

Split screen. On the left is a walk up a twisting, rocky trail while on the right is Kanji caligraphy describing the action, completing a Haiku by Basho.This title is also available on Sympathetic …