Critical Writing Index

Totem Pall

by Alison Boston

Monday Magazine, Aug. 13, 1992

"Totem Pall" is an in-depth review of Mike MacDonald's Electronic Totem, a five-channel video work in which monitors are stacked on top of one another to result in an eight-foot high structure. Each monitor plays eighteen minutes of footage, which together tell the story of the Gitksan Wet'suwet'en. Alison Boston discusses the piece with MacDonald, who explains the context and intent of the work. MacDonald emphasizes that Electronic Totem is not television, nor a new form a documentary, but rather video art.

ITEM 1992.091 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Electric TotemMike MacDonald