AVAILABLE FOR FREE STREAMING FEBRUARY 23 - MARCH 9, 2021

 

 VideoPool Media Arts Centre presents:

PIECES OF THE ARCHIVE

 

VideoPool Media Arts Centre presents:

Pieces of the Archive


Video Pool Media Arts Centre is excited to present the program Pieces of the Archive. Pieces of the Archive shows a small cross section of work from the Video Pool Media Arts Centre's collection. Looking back at the collection that spans almost forty years of collecting it is hard to tell the story of  the history of video art in Manitoba. The five works in this program do not even attempt to do that, however they explore ideas of, experimental practice, performance, social discourse, identity, culture, and gender. These are recurring themes in the majority of work in the collection. If you enjoy any of these five videos, you will find so much more in our collection that will interest you.

Sahar Abarasteh introduces her work "Letter To A Child Never Born"



ABOUT THE FILMS


1. The Clean House
Director: Chantel Mierau, 2011 I 00h 07m 21s I VP | Canada

In this two channel video, the image of cutting and sewing a pure white cloth underpins a narration about clean laundry, comfortable chairs, moths, dust and death, drawing parallels between repetition in the home, and tradition in the House of God.

2. 4 Pocket Videos: Quarantine 2021
Director: Ryan Takatsu, 2021 I 00h 02m 23s I VP | Canada

Four videos made during the pandemic in 2021
Midcontinental quarantine tribute
Why quarantine pocket video
Nam June Paik quarantine tribute
Language is a virus quarantine tribute 



James Dixon introduces his work "8 Years Later"



3. Numb
Director: Kristin Flattery, 2018 | 00h 04m 06s | VP | Canada

Numb, questions Kanata’s relationship with Indigenous peoples, allowing the viewer to contemplate the next 150 year relationship. Numb, regards the children who fled Residential School in freezing temperatures using the railway to guide them. Numb, also pays homage to my Dakota ancestors who were dispossessed of their land and forced to move in harsh temperatures to unfavorable or inhabitable areas lacking resources. Finally, it pays tribute to a young woman who was brutally assaulted and fled barefoot into the woods where she perished.

4. 8 Years Later
Director: James Dixon, 2017 | 00h 02m 37s | VP | Canada

An experimental documentary that abstracts the roads I travel on a daily basis. Tracking shots are layered on each other turning documented images into a disorientating visual memory. Real audio from the tracking shots, contrasts the layered images, disrupting the visual collage.

5. Letter to a Child Never Born
Director: Sahar Abarasteh, 2019 | 00h 02m 37s | VP | Canada

The surveillance video depicts the omnipresence of internalized social norms restricting the lives of many women living under the gaze of the rigid traditions. Domestic chores there, are to restress the lack of choice, in terms of the lifestyle selection, as well as the women’s work being undervalued.

Throughout the video, the camera catches me scrubbing and vacuuming the remainders of paper from the surface of my unfinished work, ‘letter to a child never born’; a hint to the incompleteness of the cultural transfer for immigrants, and to the voids that persist there, perhaps for ever

This program is presented by VideoPool Media Arts Centre

 



 

This curated program is part of the VUCAVU Expanded project.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.​