Video Performance Art and Pre-MonthlyMess Gossip

The day before yesterday I walked through the Bruce Nauman exhibit (freebie day at the Montreal Contemporary every Wednesday from 6-9pm) and took in the neon signs (which I’m sure were more affective in the ’60’s) and the performance video art (awful and funny in their repetition, and a bit beautiful but mostly bemusing) and thought about how hard it is to explore and still connect with your audience.

I went with Dan Schachter, and it sounds like he might be joining us to do 2 or 3 songs solo at the August Mess (unconfirmed as of yet, but woo!). We had a pretty good time with Bruce Nauman then caught 2 wicked music videos in the basement of the museum - one by Garth Jennings for that great Beck song (maybe the last great Beck song) Lost Cause, and the other by Michel Gondry for Mad World which was simple and cost nothing to make and was heart stunningly good.

The two Nauman pieces I actually loved were the ones that used neons to create whole spaces around you - the Parallel room with the narrowing hall, suffocating to a point as you’re approaching it and then the sudden and everywhere glow of pale green florescence as you enter and someone else enters from the other side, facing you, equally astonished. The experience was nauseating and lovely, like the video performances of his from decades ago screening in the other rooms, only for me, better. More breath taking and instant.

I took a lot of video art classes in college and university for some reason. I have a hard time loving video but keep getting dragged back to wondering about it.. I think because of the ways it’ll catch time and multiply it and do weird stuff with aesthetics and narrative. One of my friends from the ol grad school days (heh.. last year), Rob Lendrum, has been working on a video project I actually like that consists of hiring actors to play him, and documenting him directing that actor into his or her performance of Rob. It’s funny and fascinating and slowly takes apart the idea of acting through video and considers what ‘character traits’ are and whether their transmission is ever successful, or whether it’s the attempt that’s interesting, sad, doomed, crucial, funny.. at the very least funny. Last year he worked with Jaqueline van der Greer, a dutch performance artist and Dj, who you might remember from the April Indyish Monthly Mess as the woman seeking her love Charles. Here’s Rob’s website where you can check out the details of that project - robertlendrum.com - including the survey he made us all fill out about him before he constructed the script and lists of character traits for the actors.

Annnyway - all this to say: video and performance art is interesting, and Concordia, here in Montreal, is quite a good little breeding ground for it.

aaannnddd… I just found out today that we’ll have the privilege of welcoming one or two of Concordia’s coolest newmedia artist researchers at the next MonthlyMess, August 31 here in Montreal at the Main Hall!

These profs, both of whom Rob and I got to work with during our time in Media Studies, are also funny, well spoken neat people, who can give us a window into their work with performance video and narrative, refusing to be shaken by whatever else we throw at them that night (like maybe baroque dancers or something).

So I’ll tells ya this right now, it’s gonna be a grand MonthlyMess. The bands are fantastic and the other acts seem like they’ll be really diverse and cool, and Afro-Bytes will be there again with the good, inexpensive eats. We’re going to stay at the Main Hall for this Mess, and support the efforts to save the Mile End Cultural Centre!! While they continue to push to get the license they need, we’re gonna help keep the place kicking with music and all kindsa culture in a way that fits in with what they’re currently allowed.

Watch for info here and updates on the mess page in the next week, as acts gets finalized and the playlist is confirmed…