Arts Magazine February 1979

GROUP SHOW

Leo Castelli Gallery February 1979

Through the efforts of Patricia Brund- age, a comprehensive exhibition of video and film works, produced between 1976 and 1978 by fifteen artists working in highly diversified styles and subjects, has been arranged at the Leo Castelli Gallery. The works are presented sequentially in a program that requires three full days to see in its entirety. Collectively they represent a conglomerate cross-section of the varied statements that are presently being explored in these media. David Haxton’s two films Cubes and Cylinder Sphere attack the traditional security of the picture plane itself. In a black and white negative, an artist paints delusively on what appears to be a white surface. In reality his marks have been made on invisible wires and successive screens that are later penetrated or torn away. Paul and Marlene Koss also deal with a ruptured plane in their videotape entitled Sirens. A calm summer land- scape is carefully established only to be broken apart by the disturbance of the still pond of water, which up to now had existed only as a reflection. New Reel, a tape by Her-mine Freed, is a fast- moving documentary of the 20th century in which familiar historical images and sounds are represented in rapid-fire succession. Various subjects and figures are subtly evaluated and contrasted through the skillful use of montage and split screen editing. (Leo Castelli, December2-20)

-Robbie Ehrlich