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Amsterdam Camera Vacation

Steve Reinke

2001 00:12:00 United StatesEnglishColorStereo4:3Video
Tags:
Autobiography, Chicago Art, Diary, Expedition/Travel, LGBTQ, History, Humor, Language, Sexuality

Description

"I'm not going to go to the Anne Frank House—I don't think I could take it—being a tourist is bad enough—though I'm not really a tourist—I'm here working—my camera's the one on vacation—taking holiday sounds and images—it's having a nice change of pace—for me it's still the same old thing—talking and talking. I don't want to go inside the Anne Frank House—I don't even know why they call it that—she didn't own it—as far as I know she didn't have any real estate holdings—not in this neighbourhood anyway, that's for sure—and I want to remember Shelly Winters as she was in A Place in the Sun—I don't care about the Oscar—I want to remember her tipping out of the boat—tippy canoe and beaver too—falling into the lake and drowning—I don't want to remember her any other way—except possibly her other sea-faring role, The Poseidon Adventure."

— Steve Reinke 

About Steve Reinke

Steve Reinke is an artist and writer best known for his videos. His work is screened widely and is in several collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Pompidou (Paris), and the National Gallery (Ottawa).  His tapes typically have diaristic or collage formats, and his autobiographical voice-overs share his desires and pop culture appraisals with endearing wit. 

Born in a village in northern Ontario, he is currently associate professor of Art Theory & Practice at Northwestern University. In the 1990's he produced the ambitious omnibus The Hundred Videos (1996), and a book of his scripts, Everybody Loves Nothing: Scripts 1997-2005 was published by Coach House (Toronto). He has also co-edited several books, including By the Skin of Their Tongues: Artist Video Scripts (co-edited with Nelson Henricks, 1997),  Lux: A Decade of Artists' Film and Video (with Tom Taylor, 2000), and The Sharpest Point: Animation at the End of Cinema (with Chris Gehman, 2005).

"Reinke is so skilled and at ease with the video medium that he seems to have no fear or hesitation addressing just about any topic that human beings might get tangled in, from sex and evermore bizarre rituals of attraction and betrayal through to some of the most frivolous but poignant obsessions and self-delusions that people indulge in to keep despair or boredom at bay."
--Ross Gibson, How Photographs Are Stored in the Brain, Remembrance and the Moving Image catalog (2003)