THE ALPHABETIC ORDER OF THINGS: Q-Z

EMMEDIA presents

THE

ALPHABETIC order of things

A Survey of Video Art from Vtape’s Collection

Q-Z

Curated by Teresa Tam August 14, 2014 @ 9-10PM | EMMEDIA Parking Lot - 351 11 Ave SW

The camera, when turned towards ourselves, does not merely reveal a narcissism, it reveals an anxiety toward one’s own hyper self-awareness permeated by feelings of cynicism while simultaneously offering a medium through which to cope. It is never only me looking at myself, it is also others looking at me. Together, we attempt to secure some semblance of structure over our lives. Everything will be fine because we are not alone in capturing, witnessing and sharing these feelings.

About the curator: I am a recent graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design. I am currently interested in exploring how to be okay in life. Through the processes of creating a multiplicity of spaces, I just want people to feel their own feelings and recognize the richness of what they know.

Audition Tape

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay 2003, 08:00 minutes Gay white male, 5’11”, 155 lbs, 29 years old, good singing voice and co-ordination, desperately seeks job as performer in a Russian girl pop group. History, sexuality and identity collide in a musical monologue inspired by outtakes from American Idol competitions.

The G-Rated Sex Tape

Zachary Sandler and Joshua Sandler 2010, 09:28 minutes The Evan Trilogy is an attempt at a fusion of documentary and video art. It depicts Evan, a writer diagnosed with bipolar disorder, who has published one book to date that has never sold a single copy. The trilogy takes the form of an interactive illustration, at times resembling a therapy session, of the world of fantasy that keeps Evan afloat.

As a stunt to bring attention to his writing, Evan imagined recording a G-rated sex tape. In the third video of the trilogy we facilitate this as an experiment where, with the help of “performer” Rachel, Evan’s fantasy meets reality. Instead of performing sexually explicit acts, their encounter is of a more tender and G-rated nature. This collision of fantasy and reality is challenging to Evan and momentarily wakes him from the dream.

age of consent

Evan Tyler 2013, 05:30 minutes Age of Consent is a performance for video that draws on the use of the built in computer camera as a tool for queer portraiture and expression; a naked cat man interacts with meat, song and his computer. Tyler re-appropriates bologna slabs as queer objects worthy of play while the cat man dances to a song streaming from his computer; Age of Consent by legendary group New Order. Tyler re-envisions the song as an owe to the age when modern individuals discover and consent to a relationship of perverse individuality and cyber representation with a personal computer device.

----- INTERMISSION ----Skinny Teeth

Jennifer Reeves 2001, 07:00 minutes “Appropriated audio from motivational tapes and raw hewn video footage of the exploits of two punk girls creating a disturbance in an Ohio Mall (circa 1988) challenge the great society of the American heartland. A savvy examination of hardedge adolescent aggression and an attack on ‘proper’ codes of behavior. The future is yours.” (Karyn Riegel, Occularis)

Perfect Day

Paul Wong 2007, 07:30 minutes The artist records himself at home proudly indulging in the happiness of a drug (heroin and cocaine) inspired perfect day. The music of Lou Reed: Heroin and Perfect Day. Recorded on Sunday - edited on Monday. Be Happy.

conditions

Laurel Woodcock 2006, 02:17 minutes A single shot framing a lawn chair beside a helium tank in a barren landscape. The chair is tethered with 100 helium filled balloons, and is eventually blown over by a gust of wind. A dialectical tension between the literal and the mundane is coupled with a Beckettian awareness of the absurd, as the hope of being uplifted fails not just once, but twice.

THE ALPHABETIC ORDER OF THINGS Curated by Lindsay Sorell, Lowell Smith, and Teresa Tam July 31, August 7, and August 14, 2014 @ 9-10PM | EMMEDIA Parking Lot - 351 11 Ave SW EMMEDIA is proud to present a summer series of free outdoor screenings in our downtown parking lot, featuring works from prolific video artists in Canada and beyond. Curators Lindsay Sorell, Lowell Smith, and Teresa Tam selected three screening programs using Vtape’s vast catalogue of videos. Vtape is Canada’s leading artist-run, not-for-profit distributor of video art that includes a diverse collection of work from the early 1970s to the present. Join us on Thursday nights as we survey contemporary and historical media artworks that experiment with the medium of video, while breaking barriers and leading the way for avantgarde video artists to come.

www.emmedia.ca www.vtape.org Generously funded by: