Screening: The Commission, Voice Windows, and In The Land of the Elevator Girls

Woody Vasulka. The Commission. 1983. Videotape (single-channel video with sound). 40 min. 

Electronic imaging, in tandem with strange noises, dominates The Commission to produce an expressive visual vocabulary that creates what has been termed an “electronic opera”. Anecdotally accompanying the electronic codes is a narrative based on the relationship of violinist Niccolo Paganini and composer Hector Berlioz. The Commission is a pivotal work in the approach towards narrative through electronic tools.

Steina. Voice Windows. 1986. Video (color, sound). 8:10 min. 

In Voice Windows (1986), Steina generates a complex sound-image interface, using images to denote sound modulations. Images of urban Santa Fe and the elemental landscape of New Mexico visually convey the cadences and modulations of the human voice performed through a musical scat performance by Joan La Barbara, an American singer and composer. Voice Windows is part of a sequence of videos and installations inspired by the New Mexico desert.

Steina and Woody Vasulka. In The Land of the Elevator Girls. 1989. Videotape (single-channel video with sound). 4:15 min. 

In the Land of the Elevator Girls employs the mechanical gestures of elevator doors as a metaphorical agent to expose the abbreviated version of contemporary Japanese culture received by outsiders. Doors quickly open and close on tableaus of natural, urban and domestic scenes, revealing layers of public and private vision, shifting from theatrical scenes to an elevator surveillance camera's documentation of daily life.

The works will remain on view in the Henry Auditorium on Saturday, December 20th during museum hours.