Sunday, February 17, 2008

Video Art: The worst weeds in Art's Garden


This is for my , originally uploaded by 3dGorillaBob.

Of all the barren seeds in the dried earth of Modern art, none has yielded less joy or interest than video art. I've been watching video art for decades, from the days of reel-to-reel 3/4" portapaks, to today's high def digital machines, and I've never seen anything that remotely deserves to be called "art." In fact, I usually walk quickly in the other direction whenever I bump into any video installations at the Whitney, Moma, etc. "Abandan hope" indeed, for video art is usually the most dull, boring, self-indulgent claptrap to be seen, and makes the lamest sitcom seem like a work of Da Vinci. I include computer art as well, which always has a lot of computer and no art. I used to think that things would change when the generation that grew up with computers started making stuff, but no, it's all horseshit, whether you came to the technology late in life or whether you were raised with it, which i could possibly forgive if it wasn't so god awful DULL. The only somewhat amusing video art I've ever seen was made early in William Wegman's career, just before he decided dogs were the ticket. Wegman made a series of mildly amusing videos based on puns: somebody waxing the word WAX, for example. Get it? Yeah, it ain't Noel Coward, it ain't even the 3 Stooges, but it yields a bit of amusement.
Otherwide, video yields more fruit as a documentary tool. I don't know why an inability to focus, no undestanding of how depth of field works, or a shakey camera should be regarded as "artful," but that' seems to be the way it is. I dare anyway to name me a piece of video art that doesn't make you want to pull out your eyeballs. I"d rathe be recircumcised than watch even 10 seconds of this crap. Recently, somebody reshot a Hitchcock film, and projected it frame by frame. Somebody kill me please! And who can forgot Bruce Nauman's screaming clown at the Whitney, many years ago?
When I die and end up in hell, this will be playing on cable TV, 24/7. But until that happens, to hell with all of it!