Request for Comments

I recently created this video about my recent work. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1386354265/bctid1386388873
Any comments are appreciated.

Comments

, Andrew Oleksiuk

A little more description: this is a 3:46 video about images I created in Second Life, a popular virtual world platform. The images incorporate ideas concerning identity, gender and feminism. The images are of my avatar role-playing famous personals in American history. There is also information concerning some of my artistic influences, including Laurie Anderson, Cindy Sherman, Fluxus, and Second Front. There is background on how the current work connects with mail art and artistamps and other work i have done.

, Michael Szpakowski

HI Andrew
I'm glad you re-drew our attention to this because I very much enjoyed watching it.
As a documentary about your work it seems to me to suceed admirably; it's lucid, well paced &
visually engaging, it eschews cloying quirkiness and self reference (text-to-speech female voice aside, which actually works very well) you're quite stern with yourself in avoiding the common artist temptation to both assume *and* tell too much.
I was also fascinated by the confluence in your work of two apparently very disparate ways of working: the mail art and the performative work around avatars and gender. I was also impressed by your research.
How does the actual work manifest other than in this video? - Sherman like stills? performance? video? ( or did I miss something?)
Anyway, thanks.
michael

, Michael Szpakowski

HI Andrew
I'm glad you re-drew our attention to this because I very much enjoyed watching it.
As a documentary about your work it seems to me to suceed admirably; it's lucid, well paced &
visually engaging, it eschews cloying quirkiness and self reference (text-to-speech female voice aside, which actually works very well) you're quite stern with yourself in avoiding the common artist temptation to both assume *and* tell too much.
I was also fascinated by the confluence in your work of two apparently very disparate ways of working: the mail art and the performative work around avatars and gender. I was also impressed by your research.
How does the actual work manifest other than in this video? - Sherman like stills? performance? video? ( or did I miss something?)
Anyway, thanks.
michael

, Andrew Oleksiuk

Thank you, first of all, for your very kind words. The work I'm specifically referencing in the video are the stills of historical subjects, which number about 13 individual images: Susan B. Anthony, Mary Cassatt, Patsy Cline, Emily Dickinson, Mahalia Jackson, Annie Oakley, Frances Perkins, etc. This is my recent work. Much of the rest of the video explains how it connects (as you've accurately assessed) with the very disparate facets of my work.

, Andrew Oleksiuk

Thank you, first of all, for your very kind words. The work I'm specifically referencing in the video are the stills of historical subjects, which number about 13 individual images: Susan B. Anthony, Mary Cassatt, Patsy Cline, Emily Dickinson, Mahalia Jackson, Annie Oakley, Frances Perkins, etc. This is my recent work. Much of the rest of the video explains how it connects (as you've accurately assessed) with the very disparate facets of my work.