Volume Nine, Number Four   September 2004    www.columbiajournal.ca

   

Art of Fact Video Exhibition Builds on Historic Unity
Sid Tan

The Art of Fact Video Exhibition is the long overdue reuniting of two important streams in Canadian cultural arts: video art and community television. 

This ICTV Independent Community Television Cooperative exhibition, with support from the Canada Council and Video Inn, broadcasts on the community channel, cable 4, at midnight every Friday beginning September 10 until October 29.  Join us at the opening forum and social. 
 

“Video artists need distribution and audiences, and community television lacks aesthetic sophistication,” says Michael Lithgow, Curator of the Art of Fact Video Exhibition.  “My hope is that this Exhibition is a first step towards reuniting these voices into a uniquely Canadian form of participatory mass communication…”

Community programming has traditionally focussed on local politics, community events and talking heads.  Video artists have tended toward self-expression and a self-conscious exploration of how video mediates communication.  Both share a search for independent voice.  This Exhibition is an attempt to explore where one becomes the other, where video art becomes community journalism and vice versa.

“My 1976 video art documentary had a performance from Yugoslavia beside Vancouver video art distributed globally. In the years since then, Video In has had a powerful local impact,” says Richard Ward, a community television volunteer whose No Masters Yet is included in the exhibition.  “During that same time it has rarely had the wider audience available through community TV.  In this collaboration with ICTV, Video In widens its local reach by bringing a cosmopolitan social view to art on community television.”

September 10 – midnight                           
September 17 – midnight
The People Dance, Dana Claxton           
Suspects, Teri Snelgrove

September 24 – midnight                           
October 1 – midnight
Elephantiassis Ears, Tagny Duff               
Body Burden, France Queyras
Gender Line, W. G. Burnham                      
Interview with France Queyras

October 8 – midnight               
October 15 – midnight
No Masters Yet, Richard Ward           
Warriors on the Water, Nitanis Desjarlais

October 22 – midnight               
October 29 - midnight       
My World, Tristan Blackburn           
Laundry Room, Emma Howse
Kitchen Dances, Emma Howse           
Untitled 3b, Jayce Salloum
Transportation, Randy Lee Cutler           
Interview with Jayce Salloum