34 The Soho Weekly News. November 4, 1976 1Alords and Images, Images and Words Audio-Visual Rituals is really a collec- The lusty her goes on. however, and a tion of 13 one-minute sub-programs . rose soxm goes hack to arrows and all is featuring Gusella from the vertical center well again. of his eyes to just below his chest, fully Discrete words are an important part of solarized. He is performing with his arms Gusella's performances. and whether he certain repetitive movements, accom- says Them, sings them, or wears them. panied by a syncopated synthetic score they often combine well with his singular and occasional special effects. On his ,erase of rhythm and his masterful use of chest he wears a word. either tied or print- thevideospace dust behind the,creen. ed on his shirt. Each sub-program is characterized by a different word, dif- ferent arm movements, and a different rhythm. The words are ordinary- tooth, school. needle . sundae, etc. The arm mov- ements are seemingly unrelated to the words. and are always directed to the camera. making good use of the space between the body and the lens, giving it a Audio-Visual Rituals by real sense ofdepth. The rhythm of the arm Emest Gusella movements is reflected in the accompany- uK sans. Fifteen of these is a lot to watch, but the ones labeled puwW, rash Uavldson G'kliotti and angelare compelling. In Modswe Entat seeGusella, from the chest Gusella up and waning a cap, standing Ed Ennhwiller motionless in front ofa wall. On comes a humorously Anthology Film Archives banal synthesized rhythm surd blues NamJune Paik number, and soon we hear Gusella's voice Trbtue to JohnCage growing "words" at the beginningofeach Chtmnd 13 (Now. 3.11 p.m.) corny musical phrase . Gusella bows; and we see that he has "words" written on a Not all significant video art is perpetrat- piece of white paper ed pasted to the top of in the super-cool post-modern idiom, his cap, and "words" written Enwt Gusef's vertically on processed-image video the wail behind him. He straightens up. performances borrow from French Dada holding another sheet of paper with and surrealist poetry sources, and some of "word," on it under them o f his chin, which he are unusual ferocity . pushes toward the lens. rifling Last weekend the screen Anthology Film Archives with it. presented nine short tapes by Gusella in a program entitled Black Theresee is a wipe to anothercamera where dr White. All were we characterized in that they Gusella from the side. where he has featured the "words'- written often grotesquely processed image of on white paper hanging from his shoulders. He turns around, and Gusefla himself, performing in various has ways to synthetic be another one pinned to his back. The and vocal sound tracks imrye is wiped ofhisown devising . ' back-and forth front one canters to the other Some of these tapes are blatantly art- in time to the corny music. creating a syncopated montage of historical. such as Of The Rose and bowing RRRRRose Selavey . wiping. turning around. and . Others, such as pushing pieces Vampire Video and the titles, have an of paper with words like ele- '.wards." "thigh ." "honk ment of unnecessary facetiousness. The ." and -icky'. of written ~1,1 them into the lens. The effect is best them. however, suggest an original of a poetic mind. a detenr=ned maniacal children's program which sense of purports to rhythm, and bizarre but powerful imagery. teach spelling while actually leavingdeep pockets ofirrationality in our In Wolf-Zooming the camera is focused psyches. and centered on Gusella's slightly ir- The last regular front teeth. surrounded by piece. the one that I liked the hest. was .i mmi-v. moustache and beard. By Guselln. his close-up pulling on the hoe synthesized ends of a strip of masking tape passed into that of an amiable. though possibly dangerous. around the zoom ring of the lens, he snaps cat-like ex- the zoom rapidly back and forth, building traterrestrial. grunts along to this gmwly up to a quality of rhythm that we synthesizer bass line, played in one of will soon those identify as typical. At a certain point we rhythms that we now realize he is a master of. realize that the subject is the zoom itself "Arrows. arrows. grunt punt. arrows" .k rather than the images on either end. The soon degenerates into -a am is rrne is result is an exciting tape that is actually a a rose," and Gusella's art- little terrifying . historicalsources are, of course, laid hare. Edward Lucie-Smith FROM ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM TO SUPERREALISM. WILLIAM MORROW AND COMPANY INC. New York 1977 F . 448 451 F The question we have to ask ourselves is "-Synthetic images created with rebuilt sur-: whether conduct of this kind has any validity in plus World War I airplane parts. the context of the industrial and technological "-Shot with two cameras attached under each society we know. It can be argued that thefaux naif armpit and one between my legs. behaviour and apparent frivolity of the Zen -A group therapy encounter between the philosopher have age-old roots in the culture of Neo-Nazi Anarchists and the Bowery Satanists. China and Japan. Zen is at once a refinement and "-An underground sex-opera starring all my an exaggeration of something which has always beautiful friends. existed. But the modern artist cannot make his -A presentation about the 3rd coming of the gestures meaningful simply by claiming that they Punjab of Mysore to bless his freebies in America. are so. What he does has to mesh with the world "-Product with future marketing potential" around him. (Art-Rite, No. 7, p. I I). Some artists have triedto achieve this through a This baleful passionate catalogue at least gives a good engagement with the things which notion of all the things video has tried to be. They, seem to them to typify the times. In the Seventies range from "alternative" one politics masquerading as of the most active fields of avant-garde art to a prettier and more complex version of the experimentation has been video. Video Art, as it old-fashioned kaleidoscope has come . The perils and plea- to be called, already covers a very broad sures oftechnically experimental video can best be spectrum. The best definition of what artists have tried to do with the sampled in the work of the Korean artist Nam medium is supplied by Ernest . June Paik. Gusella's list of negatives. In reply tu"a question- The Paik-Abe Syntbesi!~er (Plate 364) naire from the magazine Art-Rite he said : "My delivers a flood of astonishing images which video is not: eventually become boring because they have no stability and therefore no point of rest for eye or "-Accompanied by a `pink sludge' rock and mind. Further adventures, such as Paik's col- roll soundtrack. laboration with the cellist Charlotte Moorman, "-Documentation of a conceptual perfor- who sometimes plays her adapted instrument mance in which I jump out of a 13th story window bare-breasted (Plate 365), suggest a desperate to test the laws ofchance. search for novelty at any price. VIDEO ART in video after seeing the work of Nam June Paik and the Vasulkas. Because of his passion for music, he bought an Victor Ancona audio synthesizer and began making abstract images using sound. He did this for four years. He experimented with mirrors, flipflopped images, inexpensive prismatic lenses and other devices in order to get and con- trol the images he wanted . ERNEST GUSELLA : Realizing the world through the Pleasing Artists and the Pubic Alike self has been the subject of many an artist's work in the past, but today's literal video image tends to make When video artist Ernest Gusella Gusella feels that the past ten years some artists' work seem narcisstic and lectured. at New York's Donnell Li- have brought a heavy intellectual ap- boring to viewers. Not so with brary last December, he showed 22 proach to the arts where artists start Gusella. While using himself as the tapes ranging in length from ten out with a philosophical premise and subject, Gusella's tapes are a blend of seconds to five minutes. He chose the hang their art on it. "It's weak think- synthesized human imagery and program with care, mindful of his ing," he claims. "Conceptual artists synthesized sound, a combination audience made up of a small coterie go through the motion of collecting that bombards our eyes and ears with of artist friends and the general data which can be interesting . perfect precision and arouses our public attracted by Donnell's sometimes. Rarely is the data new." emotions and intellect. publicity efforts . What characterizes a Like Nam June Paik, Gusella's in- Gusella's background is a mixture Gusella tape is the perfect blending volvement with music makes him of freedom and rigidity. His struggle of audio and visual elements into a conscious of the element of time in to achieve Socratic moderation harmonic whole. Gusella's music and video. "I've been trying to make my moves him from free-wheeling ex- imagers combine into powerful work shorter and shorter. It becomes plorations to honest, deep and videotapes. intense Blandness is--not one of a problem about how to end a work preparation. He rejects the Gusella's attributes. after building an emotional slick, fashionable, successful ap- peak proach On the program was his "Of the within myself as I work.