I submitted a DVD copy of one of my videos, Testament (2005), to be included in the Knot Project Space (SAW Video) iteration of Su-Ying Lee and Suzanne Carte's project, Video Rental Store: Under New Management. The exhibition, from April 26 until June 9, 2018, takes the form of the increasingly and/or already obsolescent video rental store, featuring a growing inventory of over 250 artists' videos.
Video Rental Store: Under New Management at Knot Project Space.
(Testament is 5th from top left.) Photo: Mathieu Rioux
Initiated in 2013, the project may outlast video stores themselves. The hand-lettered signs are a nice throwback to the type of sign that appeared at Honest Ed's in Toronto, another defunct business enterprise. Under New Management’s Video Store is a resolutely non-commercial venture that has a unique rental policy incorporating a pay-what-you-wish with what-you-wish program. The videos can be rented without a membership and are procured from artists through an open call for submissions. Watch for it when it appears in a neighborhood near you.
Michael Davidge, Testament, 2005, digital video
Testament incorporates footage from the classic silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. The frame rate expands or contracts depending on whether it is a close-up or establishing shot, in an effort to generate tension and release in the viewer. It has a unique soundtrack, borrowed from the Crosby and Hope Road comedy, Road to Bali (1952). The use of this music was my nod to Antonin Artaud, who appears in the director's cut but who is otherwise absent from my edit of the film.
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