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Curated by Guillermina Zabala
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Deconstructing
America
De-symbolizing America
Decomposing America
De-ciphering America
De-coding America
Re-editing America
If you have to pick a single video frame that
symbolizes America, what would you pick?
The flag?
A hamburger?
A soldier? An AK-47?
A sexy woman in the beach? The Beach Boys?
Babe Ruth? Joe Di Maggio? Marilyn? JFK? Sinatra?
Martin Luther King?
John Wayne? Bush II?
All of the above (and the list goes on...)?
American stereotypes, icons, symbols, idols, words and sentences,
political figures, friends and enemies, slogans, media and TV commercials
play an intricate and very dangerous and subliminal role in American
life. Up to what extent do we really know what are we feeding ourselves
with? What kind of information is our consciousness being battered
with, almost every second of our lives? What is real and what is
fictitious?
Images in mainstream media and political campaigns (often the same)
create this invincible, multi-headed monster called reality: the
reality of violence, lies, exploitation, political demagogy, and
human rights abuses.
This group of artists experiment mechanically and intellectually
with various pieces of appropriated (media clips, film clips, photographs)
and original footage, creating a unique and surreal look. The results
suggest that manipulated video work may be more real than "reality."
States
of the Union / Bill Clinton
Aaron Valdez
The Clinton years were far better than the best of Bush, and Slick
Willie himself gives us all the numbers to prove it.
States of the Union / George W. Bush
Aaron Valdez
What those liberals don't understand is that, on the other hand,
Bush's magic needs no words. Watch and relish the face of compassionate
conservatism.
Scenes from and Endless War: Scene 4
Norman Cowie
Union Square Park, NYC, 9/16, 2001: Justice, vengeance, and bread
bombs.
La Calavera
Jim Finn
War games. War planes. Games. Planes. Planes. Games. The repetitive
missile shooting from a war plane blurs into a war game. Add an
uplifting song to it and you have a perfectly entertaining music
video game. Or is it reality?
Scenes from and Endless War: Scene
19
Norman Cowie
An instructional video for Rumsfeld's favorite toy: the UCAV plane.
Better, most efficient killing. And you can do it in the privacy
of your own home! Modem not included.
S-11 Redux: (channel) Surfing
the Apocalypse
GNN video
A bombardment of force-fed post 9/11 sound bites and images. The
early "You're either with us, or against us" days.
Scenes
from and Endless War: Scene 9
Norman Cowie
Tale of the Two Americas: War and Peace clash on the NY streets.
Between Subjects
John Davis
Big corporations suck, but we must consume. Too bad about those
3,000 that died, but life goes on---pass the sun lotion. The president's
untouchable powers make him so invincible he glows like a disco
mirror ball.
Scenes from and Endless War: Scene 1
Norman Cowie
Bush and Rumsfeld welcome you to the MTV Nation.
Agent Orange
Mark Boswell
"The effects are only superficial." Watch the toxic consequence
of the digital conversion of avant-garde cinema.
Scenes from and
Endless War: Scene 12
Norman Cowie
Better dead than red. Bush illustrates how the terrorism alert
advisory system really works.
USSA : Secret manual of the Soviet
Politburger
Mark Boswell
A "crypto-documentary" that reveals how Ray Kroc (an
unscrupulous milkshake salesman) obtained a bootleg copy of the
seminal Soviet food manual ("The Acme of Ground Bovinity")
and turned a humble LA burger outlet into one of the world's most
sinister meata-corporations.
Key West
Thomas Aigelsreiter
Whatever happened to the American Dream? The gorgeous bikini beauties
of the 50s, the overall sense of comfort and freedom, and other
long gone notions.
Notes from Underground
Les Leveque
Bush's 151 eye blinks translated to Morse code and accompanied
with a statement taken from a 1969 Student for a Democratic Society
(SDS) convention. A triple, hypnotic treat.
Just
Joon Soo Ha
Minimalist and metaphoric, Just examines the layers inside image
deterioration and how that could change our perception of the ultimate
domination symbol: the American flag. |
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