In the early 1990s, the video artist Wendy Clarke facilitated an extraordinary series of video dialogues between inmates at the California Institute for Men in Chino, members of the Church In Ocean Park in Santa Monica, and a group of Crenshaw residents in Los Angeles. In this tape, Ken, a restrained but confident songwriter and vocalist, corresponds with Louise, an upbeat but somewhat distant woman. As described by the scholar Michael Renov, “with each tape exchanged, their emotional intimacy gathers greater force. Ken writes and sings a song to Louise. In reply, Louise shares . . . her secret self. And it is through the incitation of the video medium that so powerfully fuses distance and intimacy that this cathartic pas de deux is effected.”
Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Video Data Bank.
Related events:
Wendy Clarke, 1991, USA, 47 minutes, closed captions available
Streaming February 11–17
Wendy Clarke in conversation with Bruce Jenkins and Maria Gaspar
February 11, 7:00 p.m. CT
This event will have live captions.
[Image: A close-up portrait of a Black man smiling and gazing directly at the camera. He has a short black afro and a mustache. He wears a blue sweatshirt and the collar of his white tee-shirt underneath peaks out. A black-wired wearable microphone is attached to his blue sweatshirt. The background is a muted brown canvas that is splatter-painted with yellow, white, and black.]
- Year1994
- Runtime79 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- FilmmakerWendy Clarke
In the early 1990s, the video artist Wendy Clarke facilitated an extraordinary series of video dialogues between inmates at the California Institute for Men in Chino, members of the Church In Ocean Park in Santa Monica, and a group of Crenshaw residents in Los Angeles. In this tape, Ken, a restrained but confident songwriter and vocalist, corresponds with Louise, an upbeat but somewhat distant woman. As described by the scholar Michael Renov, “with each tape exchanged, their emotional intimacy gathers greater force. Ken writes and sings a song to Louise. In reply, Louise shares . . . her secret self. And it is through the incitation of the video medium that so powerfully fuses distance and intimacy that this cathartic pas de deux is effected.”
Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Video Data Bank.
Related events:
Wendy Clarke, 1991, USA, 47 minutes, closed captions available
Streaming February 11–17
Wendy Clarke in conversation with Bruce Jenkins and Maria Gaspar
February 11, 7:00 p.m. CT
This event will have live captions.
[Image: A close-up portrait of a Black man smiling and gazing directly at the camera. He has a short black afro and a mustache. He wears a blue sweatshirt and the collar of his white tee-shirt underneath peaks out. A black-wired wearable microphone is attached to his blue sweatshirt. The background is a muted brown canvas that is splatter-painted with yellow, white, and black.]
- Year1994
- Runtime79 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- FilmmakerWendy Clarke
