Jesse Drew, The Collective Camcorder in Art and Activism

Jesse’s essay on video art is a wonderful insight on the history of the art. As camcorders are a tool as much as a brush for the painter, video art has an intrinsic value for being active, a leading role in creating an equal society. The description of cultures and community working towards an egalitarian society is indeed an ambitious one, but it certainly does not mean we are not making progress. The move toward social awareness, labour conditions, gay rights, political hegemony and ideology is ever increasing, and as we have seen from modern day examples from Michael Moore’s documentary films, it gives rise to the subversive and perverse traits of the evils of the world. We live in a society today where individual, group and counter-culture messages are becoming stronger. Films like The Corporation, Shock Doctrine, and Fahrenheit 911 give viewers an alternate perspective, and enlightening on political and consumer context.

The Internet is probably an even greater medium next to homegrown grassroots video art. It not only spreads texts and comments of individual intellects, it gives birth to services like You Tube, spreading the video art even further in a flurry of activity. The proliferation of freedom of speech is then exponentially aroused. I agree with Jesse, that these video messages are much more effective when they are presented outside of an art gallery context, because the vehicle of the message is not glorified as art, but the message itself is accepted with a kind of urgency and importance. However as merely focusing on art for art’s sake, I would like to call upon an experience I had when I visited the Power Plant gallery last year. It was during the exhibition We Can Do This Now, with Aleksandra Mir’s video diary of her visit to Mexico.

“Depicting my attempts to connect with local people and Mexican customs through the body language of dance. As the story unfolds, the monologue touches on everything from globalization, alienation, class struggle, revolution and food to classical ballet, sex, crime and rock ’n’ roll.”
– http://www.aleksandramir.info/projects/organized/organized.html

It shows Aleksandra as a person estranged from the culture of Mexico, having to learn new things from a ground-up perspective, through dance and movement. Her eventual portrayal of the above subjects becomes a profound way of presenting these contextual subjects to other viewers in the gallery, and I found myself become enlightened in a way I haven’t been before since documentary films.

– Stephen