The Program (2001)
The Program was/is a 4 hour long portable video piece with origins between Chicago-Puerto Rico. In The Program I interspersed a curated selection of art videos with all sorts of TV shows, home movies, commercials, etc. An altered version of The Program by Rebekah Ruthkoff was exhibited at Plus Ultra in NY. Italian artist Stefano Pasquini did an altered version in Milan.
400 copies of The Program were made by me and distributed freely to anyone who asked. I do hope some of you kept a copy. The Program came with an essay by Marc Fischer of Temporary Services.
Back in 2000 DYI GenXers did postcard announcements. We took pride in our designs. The video show took place at apartment galleries only. Eventually it was “screened” at the Evanston Art Center in Chicago and Museo de las Americas in Puerto Rico. Always with a remote control. No loops. No big wall screenings. Only a small TV/VCR and a remote. People would make the call to either watch TV curiosities, political debates or art videos.
Friends, heroes, the people we admire never die on video. In the year 2000 a young radical activist Sinead O’Connor was interviewed by slime-ball-shock-jock Howard Stern. I taped the interview from my TV to VHS and exhibited it in the company of an art video piece by the great María Alós (1973-2011).
