Body Fluid (1987) by Paul Wong from Images Festival on Vimeo.
Body Fluid
Canada 1987 Video 22 min
Body Fluid is a skillful, sensual rendering on tape of an intriguing performance piece orchestrated by Vancouver multi-media artist Paul Wong. Through a fog-laden romantic atmosphere, iconic figures emerge to perform on a huge turntable for an unseen audience. Our look at this garishly lit spectacle is mediated by the gaze of a female Chinese Communist. All flash and brilliance, this tape appears to critique popular culture by robbing it of any ostensible content. Leaving one to consider that beneath the surface of fake tinsel lies, as the Hollywood proverb has it, only the 'real tinsel' - the detritus of our times.
About iFpod
For the 2012 festival, Images is looking back to its first edition. Taking place over four days in June, 1988, the first Images Festival was a snapshot in a moment of contemporary film and video art in Canada. The 1988 festival was programmed by a team of artists and other fixtures on the local film scene and included Cameron Bailey, Richard Fung, Marc Glassman, Annette Mangaard, Janine Marchessault, Paulette Phillips, Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak and Ross Turnbull. Featuring 51 films and videos organized into eight programs, the lineup of the festival reads like a hit list of the most significant figures in Canadian art history: Philip Hoffman, Vera Frenkel, Paul Wong, Richard Kerr, Jan Peacock, Sara Diamond, Michael Snow, R. Bruce Elder and Steve Reinke (under the early pseudonym Troy Beuys).
A complete list of the works and
programs is printed here as a reproduction of the original handbill made
in 1988 and on our website we’ll be presenting a temporary archive of as
many of these works as we can track down for you to enjoy!
Head over to www.imagesfestival.com/ifpod for a little history lesson.
