Mon Wed Friday Video, 19805 Video Art

A collection of brief, sometimes political, art films. They focus on beauty and the human body. Nudity is present; viewer beware.

00:05Copy video clip URL Tape opens on computer-generated graphics, showing a scrolling page of glyphs. The scene begins flashing colorfully, and the process repeats. 

01:30Copy video clip URL A title card shows, reading “Monday Wednesday Friday Video Club.” The card is followed by another introducing this particular video: Art as Commentary.

01:45Copy video clip URL The film begins with an interview-style shot of a man speaking into the camera. “The act of commentary is an act of aggression,” he says. He explains that commentary is an interaction between truth and a discourse. 

02:50Copy video clip URL “The commentator is needed[…]to render that discourse[…]intelligible,” the man continues. His exploration of this abstract discussion continues, and he suggests that commentary is the supplanting factor in a discourse. “Your commentary is there to take [the discourse’s] place.” 

04:15Copy video clip URL He then speaks about how the way in which a discourse operates in a military, surgical, or artisanal manner. 

04:55Copy video clip URL Commentary, he goes on to say, is actually an act of self-aggrandizement—by the commentator themselves. The man then goes on to explain this point, examining the process of text analysis in doing so. He compares the act of questioning—the “primeval question”—to the one that a predator asks of its prey: “‘Are you good to eat?’”

06:30Copy video clip URL The film goes dark and then shows a title card reading: “Misappropriation (After Andy Warhol.” 

06:40Copy video clip URL A black and white image comes on; it shows a woman eating a banana with a hard rock musical accompaniment. She continues consuming bananas, moving between several different settings. 

06:36Copy video clip URL The film goes dark again, this time the title card reads: “Indefinite Concrete Material.”

06:45Copy video clip URL The black and white film returns, this time showing indeterminate moving shapes and what sounds like a human simply making random noises. 

09:20Copy video clip URL A woman’s face is shown, and it’s clear that the shapes seen are humanoid at least. The noises heard are now a guttural moaning and crooning. This continues for several minutes, with a brushing image shown interchangeably with other unintelligible shapes and several women’s faces. 

12:58Copy video clip URL The tape goes dark, with another title card reading: “Collective Oedipal Revolution.”

13:17Copy video clip URL The new film cuts in, this time in color. It shows several women moving and standing around. One holds an axe and each one engages in seemingly random actions.

14:30Copy video clip URL A story has started to emerge, as three of the women pull a small copy of the Mona Lisa off of a shelf and seem to laugh at its destruction. Other women begin to touch each other as well as continue standing and moving around. A crescendoing orchestra score accompanies this throughout. Lending to a sense of excitement.

15:30Copy video clip URL The tape goes dark again.

16:00Copy video clip URL “Theater of Exploitation Presents,” reads a title card. “An art film: Meat Rack,” reads the next. 

16:15Copy video clip URL Meat Rack begins, and a slow orchestral score accompanies several overplayed men speaking. Nude bodies are seen through a hazy film, shot very tightly. 

17:35Copy video clip URL Liquid can be seen running over the nude bodies. The voices in the background seem to be a commentary on the images shown; one track simply says “How very erotic,” repeatedly, while another seems to be analyzing the onscreen images. 

18:40Copy video clip URL The screen cuts to a title card on a black background; it reads: “Premature Orgasm.” The same images return, this time slightly more detailed, and a new voice is heard—this time it belongs to a woman. A white sticky liquid is seen on the bodies and on hands that rub across them. Again, there are two auto tracks: one repeats “you quick squirt, that really pisses me off,” while the other again seems to analyze the onscreen images. 

19:58Copy video clip URL The bottle which is releasing the white sticky liquid—which seems to be lotion or shave cream—can be seen briefly. 

20:34Copy video clip URL Another title card is seen quite briefly; it reads; “Teen Suicide.” A hand holding a gun is seen, and the same music continues. A new voice can be heard now; this one says “death follows sex” repeatedly. Several shocking images are shown of various methods of suicide. Another voice can again be heard seemingly commenting on the images on screen.

21:30Copy video clip URL The same nude bodies as before are seen again, covered in dripping blood. 

22:35Copy video clip URL A new title card is show, reading: “Luxury Vixens.” Again the music and two voices continue. 

22:38Copy video clip URL The new voices say, “sex, violence, and luxurious surroundings.” Images show well dressed people doing things like stuffing money into women’s shirts and fondling pearls. The people begin wrestling, and shots from the previous several films are cut in between them all. 

24:20Copy video clip URL The narrator of this film advocates for films to be entirely composed of young people having sex and killing each other, and doing so in luxurious surroundings. He says that such a thing is the pinnacle of dehumanization, and constitutes the “American mythology.” 

24:38Copy video clip URL The film cuts to black and the music fades out.

24:53Copy video clip URL A new black and white film begins, showing a cowboy in a studio. The on screen title reads: “Baudrillard’s Lasso.” 

25:01Copy video clip URL A new scene cuts, and it’s now a color shot of a cowboy walking towards the camera, and then another sitting atop a horse. Another black and white scene is shown, and the confusing cuts continue as we see a horse riding along a far-off ridge. 

25:40Copy video clip URL After a brief cut to black,the same cowboy is seen waiting for a train. He lights a cigarette and explains that he never wanted to go out west. A black and white clip cuts in, showing a suit-clad man explaining that the new cities of America need roads to join them, dams to store their water, and statehood to shore up their citizens’ rights. The crowd cheers in response.

27:00Copy video clip URL The cowboy explains that he never did see the use in collecting private property. He’s then seen outside a bank, and explains that he’s unsure about the existence of the financial markets. “All there really is is legend and myth,” he explains, before riding off into the distance. 

28:20Copy video clip URL The film fades to black. A flashing title card reads: “Mondo Familiae.”

28:46Copy video clip URL A new film begins, again in black and white. An upbeat score accompanies what largely appear to be family home videos. 

29:33Copy video clip URL Quite suddenly the film cuts and the soundtrack becomes a bit more ominous. The video shows similar people doing quite odd things; drinking alcohol from the bottle, fighting, and such.

30:08Copy video clip URL The film cuts and the soundtrack switches again, this time to a crooning romantic one. Two women undress on the beach while two men look on. 

30:25Copy video clip URL The film switches again yet the soundtrack remains; men are seen drinking liquor from the bottle, and then a topless woman smiles at the camera. 

30:55Copy video clip URL The video and soundtrack change again, now showing elderly men and women doing various activities. 

31:50Copy video clip URL The film fades to black. A title card reads: “Gift-Wrapped Aporia.”

32:15Copy video clip URL A new film opens, showing some Estée Lauder beauty products. A voiceover explains that natural beauty is the only true beauty. “Nature must be controlled,” the voice continues. There are two narratives conflicting, as the voice then moves back to advocating for natural beauty. The debate centers on the question of whether natural beauty should be left as it is and admired in that way or whether it should be enhanced through the technologies available to us.

35:00Copy video clip URL The debate continues, with new images of Estée Lauder beauty products being shown as it does.

36:25Copy video clip URL The beauty film ends, and several seconds of black follow. A brief title card reads: “Godard Revisited.”

36:45Copy video clip URL A man is seen walking up some stairs before a quick cut seems to show a behind the scenes of an interview with a woman who wears a black leather jacket over a white outfit. Scenes of this woman are spliced between ones of a man seeming to stand around, not doing much. She answers briefly to each question asked of her, questions which all pertain to the Civil Rights Movement. 

38:40Copy video clip URL The man in the other half of this film begins speaking, and doing so in French it seems. 

39:20Copy video clip URL “Will there be a Black president,” the interviewer asks of the woman; “Yes,” she answers. 

39:30Copy video clip URL The film fades to black.

39:48Copy video clip URL A harsh electric guitar begins playing and a new title card reads: “Speed and Violence. 

40:01Copy video clip URL The next film begins, showing video from various wars throughout history—things like tanks, infantrymen, horseback soldiers, and battleships. These images are spliced between a slightly sexual set of closeup shots of a woman and man, which concludes with the man being shot by an empty gun and a fake body swinging lifelessly. 

41:05Copy video clip URL The tape ends, fading to black. 

41:20Copy video clip URL A new title card is shown, reading “Excremental Culture.” A set of whining, humming noises shatters the silence of the transition between films.

41:27Copy video clip URL This next film opens on a urinal toilet. 

41:39Copy video clip URL Another title card is shown, this one reading “Blockage.” 

41:48Copy video clip URL A new shot shows a woman arriving home, seemingly from work, with guttural noises in the background. The woman moves about the house, grabbing a box from the attic before shedding her shoes and clothes and dumping the contents of the box onto her bed.

43:21Copy video clip URL The same woman takes the contents of the box, dark-colored coins, and drops them upon herself. She continues to do so several more times, with the noises accompanying this becoming louder and then a bit quieter. 

44:46Copy video clip URL The tape fads to black, and a new title card reading “Spew” is shown. Various images from various secondary sources are then shown, each slightly related to this idea of spewing. 

45:29Copy video clip URL The tape cuts to black and the sounds end. A new title card reads: “Isou’s Chisel.” 

45:57Copy video clip URL A black and white stop-motion film begins, as a black umbrella moves across the frame to cover a sewing machine. 

46:23Copy video clip URL A new shot begins, showing a man standing amongst a plethora of film equipment, saying, “We’re going to start the film now.” He and another man discuss whether the film has started. 

47:40Copy video clip URL A brief shot shows a woman reading a large book; when asked what she’s doing, she answers: plagiarizing. 

48:06Copy video clip URL The sound of shattering glass announces the arrival of a new title slide, reading: “The Mirror of Reduction. It’s followed by one reading: Symmetry is Order.”

48:27Copy video clip URL A series of symmetrical images are shown, with the soundtrack intensifying with the arrival of each new one. 

49:08Copy video clip URL A new title slide and a change in soundtrack announces that “Symmetry is Manufactured.” The same images are shown, this time in reverse order. 

50:02Copy video clip URL Another title slide arrives, this one reading: “Symmetry is Profit.” Nothing but black follows that title, as the tape ends.

52:25Copy video clip URL The tape ends. 

 

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