Educational Media Reviews Online

At first glance, the title Point of View: An Anthology of the Moving Image would appear to connote a collection of archival moving image artifacts. However, the publicity materials included with the DVD reveal that it is instead the “first commercially available anthology of the moving image in contemporary art.” This description brings us a little closer to the contents but it is still rather unclear that we are most likely talking about video art and an exhibition associated with this particular collection. Only when the New Museum of Contemporary Art’s web press materials are consulted does the selection become clearer. I would also imagine that the publicists for this boxed set of 11 all-region DVDs have their own specific definition of the meaning of ‘commercially available’ as video art compilations have been commercially distributed and collected by libraries since the 1970s. I will venture to say that this is perhaps the first made-specifically-for-DVD anthology as the 11 works with a total time of just under 66 minutes were commissioned with the artists’ understanding that their works would be distributed on DVD. The exhibition associated with the 11 works showed them in environments with computer monitors and headsets (interestingly, an environment replicated in libraries) or larger public displays. Each of the 11 DVDs contains the commissioned work along with an interview between the artist and art critic Richard Meyer, or curators Dan Cameron and Hans Ulrich Obrist, a biography, and images of other works. This reviewer cannot speak to the additional materials as only the compiled art works were included on one sample DVD. Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) distributes works by most of these artists and their website is an excellent reference source for thorough biographies, descriptions of earlier works, as well as stills of various works for each artist they represent. EAI also distributes this anthology.

A flyer that was included with the sample DVD indicates that Point of View: An Anthology of the Moving Image functions simultaneously as an archive, a teaching and research tool, and an exhibition inside a box.” I would absolutely agree that this anthology is a teaching and research tool and possibly to a certain extent it could even be used to mount an exhibition depending on artist-approved modes of projection, facilities, space, and public performance rights (the collection is sold for educational and referential purposes only.). From the information provided with the reviewer’s copy, it was not clear what the artists’ intent for ad hoc exhibition would even be. Of course, a simplification of the publicists’ prose might indicate that an ”exhibition in a box” really translates to just a private monitor or laptop viewing situation. I do take issue, however, with calling the anthology an archive. The moving image archival community does not recommend archiving materials to DVD. In the archival community works on DVD would be considered access or viewing copies rather than those originals from which the DVD was struck. Just like feature films on DVD are not considered archival materials but consumer-level viewing copies, so should this anthology. Put simply: this anthology is not an archive; it is a collection of works. Similarly, there is a problem with this anthology being a “collectible piece of art” as its Sales Director calls it, since just like a print made on bad paper that will deteriorate, these DVDs will be as viewable in 15 years as betamax tapes are now and this is why I find it incomprehensible that the New Museum of Contemporary Art would agree to marketing the DVDs as art rather than access copies. The DVDs may someday be collectible objects in themselves, just as an out of print art exhibition catalog might be, but the current generation of DVD as a platform to view art will very soon be obsolete with High Definition just around the corner and then the collectible value will simply be in the cover artwork and jacket design. Will a new edition be then published to replace the obsolete one?

The reviewer’s copy or available supporting documentation do not provide information about the selection process for commissioning the works. It would have been valuable to know about the vision of this endeavor and why the specific 11 artists were included to the exclusion of so many others. More importantly, however, it does not provide any information about the original source materials for the DVDs. Were all the works “by film and video artists from new and old(er) generations” commissioned to be produced in the same video format or did the artists work with the equipment they normally use? It truly is essential for those attempting to study them to know which were analog and which were born digital. Perhaps the documentation is provided in the boxed-set additional materials or discussed in the interviews but it would have been informative to have the specific format and support for each work in the credits or on the menu for the DVD.

As to the works themselves, they include: Francys Alys’ El Gringo; David Claerbout’s Le Moment; Douglas Gordon’s Over My Shoulder; Gary Hill’s Blind Spot; Pierre Huyghe’s I Jedi; Joan Jonas’ Waltz; Isaac Julien’s Encore (Paradise Omeros: Redux); William Kentridge’s Automatic Writing; Paul McCarthy’s WGG (Wild Gone Girls); Pipilotti Rist’s I Want to See How You See; and Anri Sala’s Time AfterTime. The three most outstanding pieces are Isaac Julien’s 4 minute 38 second lyrically beautiful meditation on the African Diaspora’s quest to set roots in the New World. The exquisite photography seamlessly melts mirror images of waves crashing on the beach that create a trance-like immersion into the image. William Kentridge’s animated Automatic Writing is 2 minutes and 38 seconds in length and follows techniques established by the surrealists to draw the viewer into the artist’s subconscious. He translates charcoal drawings into a hand-made animated film that shows signs of erasure and reworking. Pipilotti Rist’s piece is a spry musical art video exploring voice and body represented in popular culture. A note of caution about Paul McCarthy’s WGG (Wild Gone Girls). It continues his exploration of violence as performance, with bikini-clad women dismembering a man and delighting in the blood splatter on their bodies. Although the gore is faked, the piece could be very disturbing to some viewers. Nevertheless, over the last thirty years the over-saturation of filmic gore in commercial feature films, videos and computer/video games would probably have desensitized most viewers under the age of 40, leaving them unmoved by the work.

The reason to purchase this collection of art-videos is for the works themselves. Produced in 2003, they provide a view to the concerns of these 11 artists at a specifically designated time in cultural and art history. The ineffective and misleading marketing strategy notwithstanding, this collection or art videos stands on its own merits as an example of a good cross-section of contemporary art. Recommended for college and university-level art history and cultural studies areas.