The Banff Centre
June 9 – 26, 2003
Installation view.
Featuring a selection of work drawn from the Permanent Collections of the Walter Phillips Gallery and the Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives at The Banff Centre, A Very Serious Video Program… Seriously asked: “If an artist has something serious to say, what’s to gain from communicating using deadpan humor?” The videos selected for this program presented diverse issues such as sex and death, gender and social politics, commercialism and technology but were united through use of a narrative technique that contrasted message content with message delivery by thus employing deadpan humour as a tool for critique.
Featured artists: Les Levine (Ireland/Canada/USA), Martha Rosler (USA), Ardele Lister (Canada/USA), Vincent Trasov (Canada), Tony Oursler (USA), William Wegman (USA)