Luminous flashing colours fill the screen as ambient electronic incidental music sets the mood…one of mystery and perhaps even unease…voices begin to speak. The scene slowly comes into soft low resolution focus to reveal a police cruiser.
No Monopoly on Bad Judgment is one in a series of videos completed over the past few years that all share in common the use of non-directed and incidental footage that I recorded, because the scene was of interest to me. Usually single takes I allow for mistakes, such as recording the incidental sounds, using a camera that has trouble focusing etc. I then play with the raw footage, combining it with narration, sound, more deliberately created images and editing it into these little vignettes. No Monopoly on Bad Judgment was recorded originally in June 2009 from my balcony at night using an Olympus C-770 Camedia Digital Camera (2004). The sound (collage) is comprised of public domain speeches sourced from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institute, The Internet Archive and UBU Web. The music is sampled from various sources. The sound collage was originally broadcast on CiTR Radio 101.9 fm UBC Student Radio Society on January 17th 2011 as part of the annual 24 Hours of Radio Art event. The video was slowed down and looped to match the length of the audio track.
Peter Sickert is a Vancouver based multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses installation, text, sculpture, video and photography. Drawing on the strengths and weaknesses of each medium, he considers the fallibility of memory within the framework of the parafiction and museological conventions. Peter’s works have been exhibited at the Richmond Art Gallery, The Seymour Art Gallery, Deer Lake Gallery and the Britannia Mining Museum. He has also been part of the BC Festival of the Arts (2000 & 2001) as well as Artropolis (1997). Now based in Vancouver, Peter was born in Bonn, Germany in 1963. He holds an MFA (2018) as well as an ASC-Painting (2016) from Emily Carr University of Art & Design. He also has a degree in Architecture from the University of British Columbia (1991) and is a registered Architect and an Associate at DGBK Architects.
I am a Vancouver based multidisciplinary artist whose work encompasses installation, text, sculpture, video and photography. Drawing on the strength and weaknesses of each medium, I consider the fallibility of memory within the framework of the parafiction and museological conventions. My fictions are acts of recovery. I approach them with sincerity. Perhaps this is a naïve stance in an era of post truth, “truthiness” and fake news. However, I believe that the playful employ of parafictions fulfills a longing for narratives that offer more nuanced views of how we are situated in the world and the possibility and belief in elusive horizons. An acceptance that meaning is wavering and that there is a constant and necessary oscillation between facts and fictions that the simple act of storytelling can reveal. It is a way for creating openings to re-engage with the sense of wonder. I do not employ irony, detachment and humour as primary stances, stances that aim to set apart, to remain aloof or to avoid commitment, but rather they are an incidental, welcome byproduct of my process. I wish to seek out a playful and critical reengagement with the actual, with mystery, sublime, beauty and the desire of wanting to believe. It is all about the joy of dropping one’s guard, even if just for a moment, to enjoy an experience in a state of sincere naivety and in the power of playfulness, storytelling and the inherent wonder in the strangeness of our world. I was awarded an MFA and an Advanced Studies Certificate in Painting from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. I also hold a Degree in Architecture from the University of British Columbia.
--Peter Sickert
Editor: James Cowan