Yoshiko Matsumoto Gallery is pleased to present ‘Video Killed the Painting’, an exhibited curated by Bart de Koning Gans, which will be on view from December 27, 2006 until February 3, 2007.Our language of immediacy has made us hungry for quick imagery, however video art teaches us to 're'-observe by taking our time to look. True it is very annoying when it is bad but when it is good the reward is worth the wait. Video forces us to view, listen and take time to adjust. Paintings and sculptures can more easily be divided into bad and good with a brief glance, yet with video it demands your time. This exhibit features 4 video artists whom interpret various stages of the human mind and its behavior.
Absence of Humans in Nature:
Bill Albertini approaches his visual field as a sculptor shaping each frame into a conscious sequence. Through creating a digital world he confronts the viewer with absence, memory and time. In isolation and lack of human engagement the viewer becomes aware of composition and space, while eerily being confronted with a ‘peaceful’ loneliness.
Human and Artificial Nature:
Liselot van der Heijden’s focus is on documenting an environment influencing humans. This offers a beautiful contrast to Albertini’s desolation. Her close up of a monkey eating becomes a fascination with the mundane, as you are staring at the face you hear the voices of zoo visitors and we become aware of being a spectator. After a while you wonder who is observing whom, and who influences whom. Does a surrounding create us or do we create it?
Human versus Human:
David Guinan’s video is a discourse on the Cargo Culture, through its direction and focus it becomes a discussion of culture versus culture. Within the video Guinan relays how a myth can become a salvation from oppressive Western religions (i.e. the reborn Christians and Mormons). We see a native culture clinging onto a tradition and admiration of America, founded in WWII, to save them from oppressive Western religion.
Humans and their Desire:
Jillian Mcdonald displays humans with their own imagination. She plays with the power of adoration by projecting herself into movie scenes with cultural icons (i.e. Johnny Depp to Billy Bob Thorton). Through this visual manipulation Mcdonald comments on our obsession with the unattainable, yet she illustrates the root of the desire: wanting to be recognized and admired. She attains this reality through fiction, and the notion of “it’s on TV so it must be true” becomes very apparent.
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