The Red Tapes (Part One) , Three Transitions , Quidditas and Three Returns

Acconci's The Red Tapes is a rich and thoroughly convincing epic conceived for video projection. The work is about Man in geography and the accretion of a cultural history that follows. Acconci dominates the three-part tape: if it isn't his gravelly voice, growling out a lyrical narrative, it is his gnarled face adding a second landscape to this exploration of location and logos. Part One, Common Knowledge, is novelistic in form and reveals itself as a mystery of the Self. Peter Campus' Three Transitions tests the reliability of perception in gauging reality. Twisting the self-portrait, Campus uses chroma-key to pass through himself, then replace some of his features with external images, and finally, burn his own image while he watches unperturbed. Campus' deadpan attitude reminds us that the television image can transform, but it cannot judge. Frank Gillette's Quidditas is a landscape study that searches for synchronies in dissimiliar settings. Seven locales-salt marsh, tidal flats, dunes, scrub pines, etc.-are monitored for their primary processes. The result is a meditative work that raptly offers the delicate movements of water, earth and wind. Landscape also dominates Joan Jonas' Three Returns, but here the concern is the formal dislocation of perspective in video space. A boy playing bagpipes crosses a field at several different angles. The Doppler effect of travelling sound perfectly matches the visual scale and indistinct detail of this video panorama. Steve Seid

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