Ho Tam: Season of the Boys
Practical Dreamers: Conversations with Movie Artists, 2008, pp. 251-260
Coach House Books, 2008
ISSN 1 55245 200 X
Mike Hoolboom interviews artist Ho Tam about his trajectory in becoming a video artist. Tam narrates the history of his career, moving from being a social worker to a full-time visual artist who aims to represent the underrepresented, and discusses the relative merits of painting versus video. Hoolboom asks Tam about the theme of gay culture that runs through his work. Tam discusses his oscillation between beauty and youth on the one hand, and coping with the death of his partner through darker representations of gay culture on the other. Tam talks about his experience of making work in New York city as enabling his awareness of the prevalence of race issues in America.
Tam narrates his development as an artist through the retelling of various video art projects: he describes the concern with structure that runs through his work even as his thematic focus shifts.
The two video makers discuss the ethics of Tam's work in relation to his documentation of unknowing subjects, and the politics of film appropriation.
ITEM 2008.195 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Matinee Idol – Ho Tam
The Yellow Pages – Ho Tam
The Semiotics of the Kitchen – Martha Rosler
Season of the boys – Ho Tam
Dear Sis – Ho Tam
Hair Cuts – Ho Tam
Pocahontas: TransWorld Remix – Ho Tam
Miracles on 163rd Street – Ho Tam
Cop Strings – Ho Tam
99 Men – Ho Tam
In the Dark – Ho Tam
Ave Maria – Ho Tam
She Was Cuba – Ho Tam
Romances – Ho Tam
Books of James – Ho Tam