Donald O’Finn, Still from “Cyclops,” Repurposed Video, 2007
GLOW Presents the work of:
Donald O’Finn
Wednesday, December 8th
and Thursday, December 9th
8 p.m.-12 midnight
Z Bar
Bergstrasse 2 Mitte, Berlin
FREE
Donald O’Finn’s “Repurposed Video” Visions
by Leo Kuelbs
Donald O’Finn is the type of artist who enjoys sifting through the discarded piles of low-end pop culture on which the modern American psyche is founded. Like a bargain hunter at a thrift store, Mr. O’Finn isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty picking through the sketchy boxes of discarded pop culture on which the modern American psyche is founded. O’Finn can identify and excavate the bits that have yet to reach their half-lives. Potentially dangerous moments, sewn together into a patchwork mirror that reflects the past decades of America’s perversions, obsessions, and fears.
When the viewer Experiences his “Repurposed Video” work, he finds himself lurking in the American subconscious, guided by O’Finn’s deft editing and sense of humor. Without the guide, we could easily get lost in that black and white world of almost forgotten images, sounds, perspectives.
It is also worth noting that Mr. O’Finn is the proprietor of Freddys Bar, in Brooklyn, NY. Freddys was listed by Esquire as one of the best bars in America and Mr. O’Finn himself was rated one of the 10 Best Bartenders in NYC by MetroMix Mag. His videos pulsate wildly on screens placed around the bar while clients clutch their drinks in an orchestrated chaos that, in my mind’s eye, looks a lot like the work itself. It looks a lot like small patches of the American subconscious.
In His Own Words:
Since 1980 I have re-purposed, re-contextualized, effected, and weaved appropriated media samples into the dreams a television might have. I am trained as a painter, with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and always have approached these constructions exactly like I would a painting, letting the process, and the material determine any final content. The work represents television both as a medium, message, and as a device of conscious and subconscious cultural significance. I consider my product much closer to poetry or painting, than to film or TV.