Edit 021 Screened in the Viewfinder space 22 February - 7 March, 2005.
“Edit 021 is a live edit of a performance. It is selected from a series of performances that were shot between March and October 2004. This video series documents in some form different activities that a performer has undertaken. The process utilizes multiple cameras whose signal is fed through a video switcher and then recorded live to tape. The equipment is manually operated and often visible within the footage. In this way the equipments operation often interrupts or becomes part of the performance.
In this series the artist’s role alternates between performer and video editor. The documentation of the performance, operation of the cameras and editing, at times implicate an inattention to the performance itself. In this way the use of the equipment and the contingencies that arise through such use, de-emphasizes the central authorial role of the performer. Similarly the performers preoccupation with an activity might mark the absence of the editor. Here the artist’s position might be one of a puzzler initiating conditions with unforeseen outcomes.
Within the works a certain elaboration of a documentary eye or ‘straight-forward recording’ is attempted. Instead of one ‘objective’ view the works are comprised of a series of switching views. Also included within them are technical glitches of a live process. Although not always visible the presence of the performer is made known in these ways. The artist’s emphasis is placed on a relationship that is being played out and continuously negotiated. In Edit 021 it is between the role of an editor and a performer, a documentary approach and the subjectivity of the performer. One could say that it is a relationship characterized by compromise and uncertainty that is then incorporated back into its own structure.” — Viewfinder exhibition notes.