leap into the void
Reviews
California Video
"Great Show of California Video"
leap into the void's Rating
The foundation of California Video is the collection of the Long Beach Museum of Art, which ran an impressive video program for artists, offering the use of equipment and editing facilities.
I have to give kudos to the exhibition designers. Most of the work makes noise, and the designers have created some innovative displays to overcome any potential cacophony. For works on monitors, the sound is set low, so one can have a sense of what's taking place. There are two attached headphones for better sound quality, and also headphone jacks for the audiophile who might want to bring their own headset. Ant Farm's Eternal Frame is set in a period 60's living room, stocked to the hilt with JFK memorabilia. The Getty did a great job of tracking down period CRTs for the works that require it.
They've also done a great job of making excerpts of the video works available on-line, and they produced an extensive and reasonably priced catalog. There's also a video study room and special screenings taking place throughout the exhibition run. Probably one of the most refreshing aspects of the show is that they haven't censored the exhibition, like so many public institutions that rely on public funding.
Rather than have people shuffle out like TV-watching zombies, the show ends with some crowd pleasers like Jim Campbell's Home Movies 920-1, Paul Kos' Chartres Bleu, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto's Framed, and Bill Viola's The Sleepers. Also at the end of the tour is video screening room showing six videos by six artists in a continual loop (not the best solution, considering the Getty's technological ingenuity shown in the rest of the show). If you hit it at the right time, check out Cathy Begien's Black Out.
http://imoralist.blogspot.com/2008/03/california-video-getty-center.html


