Feminist Video: Reiterating the difference
Afterimage, Apr. 1985, v. 12, no. 9, pp. 9-11
A review of two recent shows that attempt to define feminism in video. Difference took a psychoanalytic approach, will Revising Romance emphasized approaches to romance in videos by women, divided into Domestic Drama, Revisionist Romance, The Double Blind and Video Picaresque. Revising Romance emphasizes feminist takes on pop culture forms like the soap opera and the film noir, but the programme suffers from having too many pieces of uneven length. Difference emphasizes the ways in which women are constructed as desirable and "other" bodies in television and cinema while extending the umbrella of feminist otherness to include gay men. The author is pleased that both exhibits include works by men, but notes that video, unlike cinema, has developed outside of male hierarchies, and is therefore a medium that shares its outlook more equally among genders.
ITEM 1985.087 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Soap – Deans Keppel
House – Ann-Sargent Wooster
Lesson I: Trouble in Paradise – Barbara Broughel
Lesson II: The Frigid Heiress – Barbara Broughel
With Love From A To B – Nancy Buchanan
With Love From A To B – Barbara Smith
Why I Got Into TV and Other Stories – Ilen SEgalove
Vault – Bruce Yonemoto
Vault – Norman Yonemoto
Possibly in Michigan – Cecelia Condit
Mother – John Knoop
Mother – Sharon Hennessey
The Adventures of a Nurse – Eleanor Antin
L'Image du Cinéma (The Image of the Cinema) – Raymond Bellour
L'Image du Cinéma (The Image of the Cinema) – Philippe Venault
Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman – Dara Birnbaum
Modern Times – Max Almy
Paysage, Paysage – Theresa Cha
VItal Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained – Martha Rosler
France/Tour/Detour/Deux/Enfants – Jean-Luc Godard