E-flux: Video for the Masses

The grand opening of E-flux Video Rental at the Carpenter Center may not provide much competition for Blockbuster, but it does afford unprecedented access to an enormous library of hard-to-obtain video art. Having traveled to Amsterdam, Seoul, and Miami, among other cities, the E-flux Video Rental (EVR) project is now making its final stop at Harvard.

EVR is an installation of video art compiled and selected by respected curators from the world over. According to the Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) website, the program is “an intervention in the circulation and distribution of artists’ video.” It began as a way to broaden the audience for this particular medium and to make video art more accessible.

Video art developed in the 1960s and 70s as a cheap and accessible medium for artists and audiences alike. Its nature allows for broad distribution, making video art a preferable way for artists to get their work out. In more recent years, however, it has become less available to the general public and much more expensive for people to acquire, with some rentals costing more than $75.

Purchasing the works is even more difficult—individual pieces can go for thousands of dollars a piece, according to Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies and of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard.

The current exhibition features more than 600 videotapes by a variety of artists, including both established and rising stars. Yoko Ono, a well-known name in both rock and video art is featured in the exhibit, as is Christian Jankowski, who is known for combining television broadcasting with his video art.

The show features material that has not been seen in previous exhibitions. In each city, local artists and professionals are invited to add pieces to the core collection of works. Two such figures contacted for the project’s Harvard debut were Alfred Guzzetti, Hooker Professor of Visual Arts at Harvard, and Boston-based artist Marilyn Arsem.

These additions ensure that the exhibit reflects local tastes to some extent. “You’re not always getting the same sort of ‘New York artists’ or artists in textbooks,” explains Lambert-Beatty.

Lambert-Beatty is one of the people responsible for bringing the EVR exhibit to the Carpenter Center. She saw the exhibit a number of years back in Miami, after hearing about its debut in New York. Shortly thereafter, she petitioned the Carpenter Center Committee to bring the project to Harvard.

“It gives people access to a collection of videotapes which they otherwise would be unable to see,” Lambert-Beatty says.

The layout of the exhibit plays off this idea in a very interesting way. The EVR exhibit, set in the Sert Gallery, appears something like your everyday movie rental store. The movies are stacked on shelves in uniform white cases with descriptions, and there are televisions and VCRs playing movies about the room. You can pick a movie and watch it there, or even check out two videos at a time for up to two days, free of charge.

The Blockbuster-esque layout presented a problem for the VES staff in charge of the project: how to get knowledgeable, interested people to staff the exhibit? Instead of hiring people unqualified or uninterested in the exhibit, the VES staff decided on an internship program, reaching out to students from Harvard, MIT, and other local colleges to publicize, maintain, and man the exhibit.

After seeing a flyer, Jose “Enzo” Camacho ’07 spoke to Lambert-Beatty, one of his professors, and applied. He is now one of eight interns working at the exhibit.

“I always had an interest in experimental art, and had a problem with the fact that video [art] was supposed to be mainstream,” said Camacho, who is also a VES concentrator.

With displays available for watching the films in the Sert Gallery, as well as a free loan program, EVR ambitiously aims to remedy that problem.

As Lambert-Beatty says, “It’s like a video store—hands on—you get to go in and play.”

—Staff writer Joshua J. Kearney can be reached at kearney@fas.harvard.edu.