Critical Writing Index

Love Stories

by Kathleen Hulser

American Film, Nov 1, 1985, v. 11, no. 2, pp. 63-65

New York: MediaBistro Inc., 1985

ISSN 03614751

Hulser posits that video art has always struggled to define itself as different. But different from what? In her article, Hulser suggests that women video artists who use the media to challenge and subvert dominant fantasy in popular television genres are carving out a new political cinema.

She points to Antin and Wooster as artists who play with the fragmentary, distracted, repetitive nature of soap opera to confront the mundane in daily life; while Broughel uses motifs found in ads and Harlequin romances to lampoon the commercialization of "housewives' dreams".

Vault, Beneath the Skin, and Possibly in Michigan are positioned as works that explore the darker sides of sexuality, death, and romantic cliches.

ITEM 1985.127 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Trick or TreatVanalyne Green

HouseAnn-Sargent Wooster

The Adventures of a NurseEleanor Antin

Lesson 1: Trouble in ParadiseBarbara Broughel

Lesson 2: The Frigid Heiress

VaultBruce Yonemoto

Possibly in MichiganCecelia Condit

Beneath the Skin

MotherJohn Knoop and Sharon Hennessey