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Marshall McLuhan said every new medium mines its predecessors for content, which is why movies still suck the bones of 19th- century drama. Video art, a bastard child from birth, was free to feed on movies, performance art and the twitching corpse of television. Tranz Tech offers all those flavours.
Mike Nourse’s Terror, Iraq, Weapons (Thursday, October 9, 9 pm) edits a CNN live broadcast of a Bush speech on the eve of the Iraq war. All that’s left is a stutter of phrases featuring those three words – terror, Iraq, weapons – uttered in various tones of conviction. It’s a simple effect, but still effective at unmasking the persuasive power of war advertising and George W.’s hidden repetition compulsion.
In Laurel Swenson ‘s Swing (Friday, October 10, 8 pm), a girl shadow-boxes in slo-mo with the camera while a woman’s voice makes ardent threats. “I want to take a swing at you. I want to hear the crack of my knuckles.” It’s a lovely, cutting performance piece that acts out a girl’s aggression in the face of sugar-pie stereotypes.
The most ravenous feeding of all takes place in Mike Hoolboom ‘s In The Theatre (Thursday, October 9, 7 pm). One of the tribute videos for the late artist Colin Campbell , it continues Hoolboom’s expert reworking of pictures from the whole history of cinema.
A river of stolen images from the most ancient, rusted celluloid to the glossiest Hollywood scenes paints a picture of anxiety. Meanwhile, text names the movie theatre as “the place where we watch death at work.” When a young Colin Campbell finally shows up in an old video clip and speaks, it’s nothing short of spectacular.
