With VHS opening the doors to at-home filmmaking, dubbing, and collecting, the medium gave rise to new communities centered around bootleg music and art compilation tapes. Most commonly found at concerts, record-collecting fairs, small business video stores, and in the hands of both artists and fans, these VHS collections predated MTV. Providing rabid fans with new access to rare concert footage, interviews, and music videos, the VHS mix tape also became a creative medium, with the selection and presentation of footage eventually developing into an art form of its very own.
Guest-curated by the NYC-based artist Videomixx, Video Mix Tape presents a sampling of the VHS collages featuring music videos, rare concert footage, and scenes from documentaries, 1970s/80s New York, 1980s cult films, cable access shows, experimental/underground works, and found tapes. Together, these samplings present a taste of the VHS mix tapes still available today, and showcase a rare example of a genre of the VHS revolution that continues to thrive decades after the advent of DVD and YouTube.