Last Spring I wrote a blog on Chris Burden's piece "Through The Night Softly" for Art 410. At the time I wasn't even sure who he was. But the phrase conceptual artist triggered a memory of this piece and subsequently a search which lead me to finding out a bit about the artist and the piece itself.
The piece also belongs here, in a digital video class since it IS video and its content deals with television which is essentially the assemblage of video clips.
This clip begins with an edited down version and then shows an even further edited clip in context with a voice over by the artist (also sounds like a clip....from an interview maybe).
The clip in its entirety is pretty brutal, minutes of a man on his belly inching his way through shards of broken glass wearing nothing but a speedo and the rope which binds his hands behind his back! The edited broadcast version of course is much, much shorter. However, shown consecutively with TV adverts designed to create desire the piece must have provoked a double take for those paying attention. For me, I had to smile since it came off as a kind of confirmation; a visual actualization of the dread I feel for the pervasive medium of advertisement. Dramatic, yes. And funny. Similar to watching too much TV, which gives a me slight feeling of guilt (for having just wasted that much of my life), I feel a slight annoyance for the persistent boasting done by the faceless thing that advertisement represents.
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