Works screened in the Careof video room:

Rene Gabri, The Venetian, 4’, 2001
The Venetian references the famous casino in Las Vegas and, naturally, the character in the video—who could they be, what could they become, what could they return to being...

Hope Ginsburg, Bearded Lady, video (edition of 6 copies) and honey jars, 3’, 2000
“In collaboration with beekeepers from New York and Connecticut, I produced Bearded Lady, a pure wildflower honey. Over the course of a summer, I developed antibodies to bee venom so I could wear a special beard made with the help of over 15,000 tiny honey producers gathered on my chin.” (H.G.)

Jenny Perlin, The Very Last View, 16mm film hand-processed (transferred to video), b/w, silent, 6’, 2001
The Very Last View portrays an experience in the romantic landscape of Civitella Ranieri in Umbria. Castles, winding country roads, a community of artists-in-residence, and images of hands obsessively typing at a keyboard to write the entire story—including that of the present film.
A short starring, among others, Paola Di Bello, Balletti & Mercandelli, Sarah Jane Lapp, Mark Dion, Morgan Puett, Amy Balkin, William Kentridge, Manuela Cirino.

Jenny Perlin, Departures, 16mm film (transferred to video), b/w, sound, 3’, 1993
Music: H. Villa-Lobos. Subject: John Pull
Departures is a fiction short film that tells the story of a boy who loses his brother and the family’s repression of the tragedy. It was shot using found footage from a 1950s social issues film and rephotographed with an optical printer.

Jenny Perlin, Perseverance, film for an installation composed of two separate 16mm projections (transferred to video), b/w and color, silent, 6’, 2000–2001
Working from Walter Benjamin’s idea that it’s more useful to copy texts than to read them (as if walking over things instead of flying above them), Perseverance closely examines cultural debris through copying, animation, and observation. The black-and-white animations were created by handwriting text letter by letter in a laborious, uncertain calligraphy, while the color section focuses on clichéd views of New York’s landscape.
The title refers to a 1915 booklet, Perseverance and How to Develop It, intended to teach early 20th-century youth the self-discipline needed to improve their lives.

Rene Gabri, Spaghetti, 3’30”, 2001
Spaghetti is named in homage to the genre of the same name. It’s an appropriation of the harsh and wondrous American landscape, carried out with style, foolishness, and romance.

Shelly Silver, Getting in, video, 2’47”, 1989
A sun-drenched afternoon in pastel-toned San Francisco is the setting where two rarely associated phenomena collide: heterosexual relationships and real estate listings.

Shelly Silver, Meet the People, video, 16’32”, 1986
With a “video vérité” style, Shelly Silver strings together quick interviews with what appear to be 14 types of New Yorkers: a cab driver, a waitress, a housewife, a stripper, an Italian-American construction worker, a Black police officer.
In the final credits, it’s revealed that all 14 are actors following a script. Silver playfully probes the notion of authenticity, ultimately showing how “personal truth” is a momentary invention and a collaboration between actor, author-director, and viewer. (Anne Hoy)
Cast includes: Carol Weinstein, Gahan Haskins, Lisa Wo, Peter Onorati, Leila Kenzle, Lloyd T. Williams, Jeremiah Bosgang, Camille Marshall, Kurt Erickson, Maureen Curtini, Annie Rae Etheridge, Brenda Lynn Bynum, Elizabeth Rose, Rita Perrault.
Cinematography: John Kraus.

Rene Gabri, Kibble, 3’30”, 2001
Kibble takes a different tone from Gabri’s previous two videos. Desire, idleness, and nostalgia... lost love becomes the stopping point that leads to a relationship with History—romantic, silly, and entirely hopeless. “Kibble” refers to both the morsel of food (noun) and the act of coarsely grinding (verb).

Douglas Ross, Harmony, single-channel video with stereo sound (installation), 40’, 1999–2000
“Man produces machines that offer supplementary functions beyond their intended purpose. The washing machine is an inspirational model of my creativity, just as the rest of the house reflects our body adapted to a cultural consciousness. Although I now feel it as something foreign, I’ve always shared a kind of wordless communication with my washing machine, eventually discovering something special: myself. Together, we produce sympathetic harmonic vibrations within my home.” (D.R.)