Hotbed: Video Cultivation beside the Getty Gardens

Dates: Friday, May 9, and Saturday, May 10, 2008
Time: 7:00–9:00 p.m. on Friday, 7:00–10:00 p.m. on Saturday
Location: Getty Center
Admission: Free; no reservations required.

Projected onto the exterior walls of the Getty Center, 18 artists' videos from 1984 to 2007 explore the theme of the body as nature or culture. This special two-evening installation complements the exhibition California Video and is curated by Anne Bray, Director of Freewaves, a Los Angeles-based arts organization connecting new media from around the world. The videos are arranged thematically and play in a loop starting and ending at the tram arrival plaza, with a fulcrum at the Museum Courtyard.

About the Videos
Many of the videos in the installation are from Freewaves.

East/West, Su-Chen Hung (1984/87, 3:30)
A mouth is split in half, one half speaking English and one half speaking Chinese. Occasionally, the two halves come together to create a whole.

Flying 1, Howie Cherman (2004, loop)
Inspired by fantasies of flight, power, and freedom, Flying 1 uses video fragments to build the illusion of flight.

Eye 1991, Ray Bravo (3:00)
Without words, a media watcher's eye reflects previous mass input and counters the past with a telescopic rush of collective symbols. The close-up self portrait elegantly illustrates that you are what you watch.

Fire Ants for Nothing, Harry Gamboa (1994, 8:00)
A homeless man declares his humanity as he struggles to push psychological boulders from his path.

Who Are You?: An Oakland Story, Portia Cobb (1990, 5:00)
Based on stories collected from Bay Area public transit passengers, this video pieces together lost history of a black woman who roams the city wearing white face powder.

Earth Fell Flat, Erika Suderburg, (2002, 10:50)
Earth Fell Flat explores the representation of trauma, nature, and the body and the mechanisms that record and attempt to represent that trauma.

Under Cover, S. E. Barnet (1996, 11:30)
Based on a true story of a woman's downfall as a spy working undercover in France, this investigation of covert action imitates the documentary style and cinema verité.

Comfort Me, Soo Jin Kim (1993, 8:00)
Kim looks at the rape of Korean "comfort women" by Japanese soldiers during World War II in order to explore both the history of rape in wartime and cultural and gender hierarchies.

As We Go On, Hillary Mushkin (2005, 6:57)
Interweaving wartime anxiety and nostalgic fantasy, this hand-drawn digital video portrays restless sleep, with sweet dreams and images of war cycling through the mind.

Voices of the Morning, Meena Nanji (1992, 15:00)
This poetic exploration of Muslim women's lives follows the socialization process of young woman living under Orthodox Islamic law.

Mirror Mirror, Paula Levine (1987, 3:00)
The instability of the gaze is at the center of this powerful piece by a veteran U.S.-Canadian media artist

Ekleipsis (from the Blindness series), Tran Kim T. Trang (1998, 22:00)
Tran presents a composite case study of several hysterically blind Cambodian women and the artist's mother to speak about the somatization of pain and loss.

Blow Them Up, Laura Purdy & Kristy Guevara-Flanagan (1998)
This single-shot film tells the tale of a blow-up sex doll teased into a plastic hood. Successive breaths make her pulsate suggestively, before her leaky demise.

Anima, Frances Salome Espana (1989, 5:00)
Espana captures the practices that define the Day of the Dead and conveys how ritual can be mobilized to reaffirm Chicana, mestiza identity.

Apple Grown in Wind Tunnel, Steve Matheson (2000, 26:00)
This absurdist, microscopic film noir follows an underground network of ill people desperate to create alternative methods of self-care in a world where natural resources are disappearing.

All Orientals Look The Same, Valerie Soe (1986, 1:30)
Taking a common misperception and turning it on its head, this video provokes the viewer to confront his or her own prejudices and misconceptions about Asian Pacific Americans.

Kappa, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto with Mike Kelley (1986, 26:00)
This ionic yet oddly poignant essay on psychosexual compulsion and catharsis deconstructs the myth of Oedipus within the framework of the Japanese folk story of the Kappa, a malevolent Japanese water imp played with eerie intensity by artist Mike Kelley.

Primate Cinema, Rachel Mayeri (2007, 5:45)
A series of video experiments translate primate social dramas for human audiences in a film noir style.

How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Parking is $8. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.