Tagged: Spaghetti Western
Vis-a-Vis Society’s NEW video poem an homage to Spaghetti Westerns and Sergio Leone
You can watch an excerpt of “The End” here.
The Vis-a-Vis Society teamed up with Britta Johnson and drove out to the desert last summer to shoot some Spaghetti Western, Sergio-Leone-esque choreography experiments, when the forest fires leaped over I-90, forcing us to re-route to Umtanum. We drove and drove, topped off the hot engine’s oil, until we found this remote site, strewn with bullet casings and shattered glass, just like T.S. Eliot described it in “The Wasteland,”
where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Dr. Ink, in the late stages of pregnancy, and Dr. Owning chomping on a cigar for the first time, donned their labcoats and white pumps, strapped on holsters and vintage Buck Rogers laser guns (thanks to the extraordinary Webster Crowell), and proceeded to conduct a series of movements testing theories on how to end.
After discovering 1,000 ways to end, and recording the results in Dr. Owning’s dad’s home laboratory, Ms. Johnson edited an incredible 23-minute video piece of this investigation. It premiered at the final installation of NEPO 5K “Don’t Run” in our “Registration” piece. This instructional video demonstrated ways to end as participants registered by selecting a race bib printed with an ending phrase. Photos below by Megumi Shawna Arai and Makenzie Stone.
You can watch an excerpt of “The End” .
Watch an excerpt of “The End” here.
We loved watching found poems form throughout the 5 kilometer art walk.
This young art walker loved the part where we fell down
Vis-a-Vis Society 