No sunshine [videorecording] / Bjoern Melhus. [1997]

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No sunshine [videorecording] / Bjoern Melhus. [1997]

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/419260641

Embodying both self and alienated other, Melhus plays all four characters in this narrative of subjectivity and self-identification. Infantile identical twins in the foreground wear costumes resembling children's Playmobil toys. In a background frame-within-the-frame, two identical androgynous figures in body suits and red paint appear to float in a virtual space that may represent an interior world or memory. The two pairs of twins communicate with and against each other in American pop song fragments. The figures initially mirror each other in synchronized circular movements. Following a narcissistic division into two, one seeks contact while the other withdraws. One figure discovers its corporeality and speaks the video's only complete sentence in the voice of Michael Jackson, "Did you ever want something, that you know you shouldn't have... and then one day you get it, and it's so wonderful to you." The remaining figures experience a breakdown of identity, an implosion. "Ain't no sunshine, ain't no sunshine--no...," sing the Playmobil figures as the video image finally extinguishes in a glaring light, then fades to black.

1 videocassette of 1 (Betacam SP) (7 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in. original.1 videocassette of 1 (U-Matic) (7 min.) : sd., col. ; 3/4 in. original.

Getty Research Institute

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SNAC Resource ID: 7441722

Getty Research Institute

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Long Beach museum of art

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62v6njc (corporateBody)

The Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA) was among the first to focus on video as an artistic medium, spurring similar efforts throughout the United States. Beginning in 1974 the museum began collecting and exhibiting video art, later also actively encouraging the development of video art by co-producing projects and offering editing facilities to artists in its Video Annex. The museum's innovative approaches to the display of video art included several experiments with broadcast and cable television...

Melhus, Bjørn, 1966-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66d9bh3 (person)