video art kitchen

video art kitchen vol.1 : SCRATCH!VIDEO

G e o r g e B a r b e r + G o r i l l a T a p e s + D a r a B i r n b a u m + M a r i a V e d d e r + R a f a e l M o n t a ñ e z O r t i z + P e t e r C a l l a s + N o r b e r t M e i s s n e r

Sampling, mixing, looping, scratching – when scratch video artists make use of the endless possibilities in the media world to create new, challenging audio-visual messages, they work just like DJs. The first program Scratch!Video from the new video art kitchen presents 7 video works on this subject. They illustrate the distinctly different positions of these artists in the way they handle mass media.

No one really knows who invented the expression. Video-scratching is primarily a form of video editing related to the sample and scratch techniques known from hip-hop music. Subjects from film, television and music archives are quoted, exposed and alienated in a playful, associative and provocative manner in new contexts. In fast-moving sequences, repeats and loops they are then compressed to various forms of collage. The familiar image flow is continuously interrupted and new unusual movements and rhythms are created. The assembly of images in this process is often linked to certain sounds or musical structures.

The origin of the scratch-video is often attributed to a close circle of British video artists such as George Barber, the art group Gorilla Tapes, the Duvet Brothers, Kim Flitcroft and Sandra Goldbacher, whose work often reminds us of the pioneering work of John Heartfield. In the mid 1980s they experimented intensively with these techniques to establish an artistic counterforce to mainstream television. Their influence on later music and advertising clip aesthetics is unmistakable. Other video artists such as Dara Birnbaum und Rafael Montañez Ortiz, however, also worked in a similar way on a repertoire of mass media. Their position on the one hand is critical and analytical while on the other hand they understand "TV as a Creative Medium" and use it to create an independent audio-visual language.

Scratch-video is a collective term which focuses artistic positions concerned with television and film media, devices and standards, and which includes both the fascination and criticism of technology.

The result is a form of culture sampling. The most varied gestures, symbols, icons, styles and cultures are imitated, tested, researched, questioned, manipulated and fusioned. Scratch!Video with selected works from the imai distribution program provides an insight into this media and cultural laboratory. Click on the artist to gain direct access to the selected work in our online catalogue.

George Barber: Greatest Hits of Scratch Video Vol.1, 1985, 30:00 min

Greatest Hits of Scratch Video Vol.1 is a unique sampler comprising the works and versatile positions of British scratch-video artists from the 1980s assembling them into a dazzling, colourful, partly critical but also kitschy collage. George Barber himself researched the aesthetic potential of manipulated video images and plays with sensual visual effects.

Gorilla Tapes: Lo Pay no Way, 1988, 6:23 min

Gorilla Tapes process explicitly political tapes. Lo pay no way is a collage from found footage and news images embedded in the song of a hip-hop group which uses satire to criticise the fast-food culture and social politics of Margaret Thatcher.

Dara Birnbaum: Pop Pop Video II: Kojak-Wang, 1980, 2:52 min

In this work Dara Birnbaum quotes from the US American television series "Kojak". The work uses sequences from a shooting scene and contrasts these with images from an advertising clip from the computer company "Wang Laboratories". Fast moving scenes and looped rock music underline this furious battle between commercial television and computer technology.

Maria Vedder: Pal oder Never the same color, 1988, 5:47 min

In Pal oder Never The Same Color Maria Vedder uses satire to question two standards of the television playback – the European PAL and American NTSC systems. The examinations of the colour playback of both systems are accompanied by a news speaker from the 1960s. In contrast to PAL, the American system offers less colour stability and therefore was given the nickname "Never The Same Color".

Rafael Montañez Ortiz: Fred and Ginger, 1990, 7:01 min

In Fred and Ginger Rafael Montañez Ortiz uses only a few seconds of a dance scene of the famous acting couple Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers, which he repeatedly loops so that the couple and the music only go forwards or backwards in very small steps, comparable to a jump on a vinyl gramophone record.

Peter Callas: Double Trouble, 1986, 6:02 min

Double Trouble by Peter Callas, produced in Japan, is a study of movements and gestures as a cultural carrier of meaning. Small gestures such as the folding of hands during a discussion, shaking of the head or shrugging of the shoulders are continually repeated. In this way persons reappear as doubles or reflected images.

Norbert Meissner: Die 3 von der Tankstelle, 1989-1994, 1:57 min

In Die 3 von der Tankstelle (The 3 from the petrol station) Norbert Meissner uses a number of sequences in only 2 minutes to summarise the German film operetta. Well-known scenes of the classic production are shown at high speed to the audience. Only a continuous soundtrack and subtle insertions in special scenes allow recognition of the film in the flow of images. The work is part of the repertoire of Meissners "Filmfax", an interactive film dispenser which gives the visitor a variety of two-minute crash-courses in film history.

Text and concept: Elena Friedrich and Sven Seibel

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