Saturday, October 15, 2011

Collage/Decollage

"The thesis of this paper is that video, as a cultural discourse, has been formed by two issues: (1) its opposition to the dominant institution of commercial television; (2) the intertextual art practices of an international constellation of artists during the late 1950s and early 1960s." - from the reading.

I was surprised while reading this that Ant Farm was never mentioned. I suppose it is because Ant Farm was most active during the 1970s while this article was mainly about the 50s and 60s. I am still surprised, however, that they were not mentioned. Particulary the film, 'Media Burn'.

I see 'Media Burn' as a decollage because Ant Farm took a large number of televisions and mounted them in a large parking lot (if that is really what that area is). They covered the televisions to make it appear as a stage for the fake President Kennedy to come make his speech. After the speech was done, it was revealed that the stage is a stack of televisions which will be destroyed by a reconstructed 1959 El Dorado Cadillac convertible. The televisions are set aflame, the Cadillac is driven through the stack, then afterwards when the fire is put out the audience is allowed to go over and destroy whatever is left.

Media Burn: http://www.ubu.com/film/ant_farm_media.html

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