(Wendy Clarke, 1991-94, USA)
Digital Projection
ONE ON ONE: KEN & LOUISE (83mins)
ONE ON ONE: ARNOLD & AHNEVA (46mins)
Though incredibly rare, Wendy Clarke’s follow-up to her massive Love Tapes project was a series of videos smaller in scale yet far more complex in its execution. Clarke, who was an artist-in-residence at the California Institute for Men in Chino, CA, provided tapes for inmates to send a video message to the outside world. Outsiders then selected tapes and composed video responses. The relationship is cultivated over time, one in which the camera functions as a two-way umbilical cord. The two in conversation are otherwise prohibited from communicating, leaving the tape as an enabler, allowing the development of cursory conversation into profound observations on connection, equality, and the realities of the prison industrial complex.
Videos courtesy of Wendy Clarke.
