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That Far Away Look

"By accepting and playing off of the ductility inherent in the classic viewer role, That Far Away Look imposes upon the viewer’s expectations for 'reading' and understanding images. The viewer does not decide what s/he sees, and moreover submits totally to (any) conventions that are offered to support 'understanding'—but here this is encouraged in such a way as to result in fundamentally duplicitous relationships between maker and viewer, between actor and work— relationships which are expanded to make room for a rich and varied encounter. That Far Away Look develops nationalism as a metaphoric model for dominance relationships between the viewer and the work. It is also, necessarily, Japan seen from America—a vision both good and bad, full of contrasts. It arches over a polycultural space, differentiable in its various dimensionalities. The American reading of Japan is caricatured through the Foucauldian figure of flatness. This tape won the Tokyo Video Festival Special Merit Award and a cash award at the San Francisco Art Institute Film and Video Festival, and is included in Traversals, a traveling program from the Long Beach Museum." —Tony Conrad

Featuring Ellen Spiro, Seth Tamrowski, Francesc Torres, Marc Urie, Elizabeth Yake, Tony Conrad; Tech Support by Chris Hill, Armin Heurich, Mitch Corber, Julie Zando, Squaky Wheel Media Collection, CEPA Gallery Buffalo; Thanks to SCAN and Fukijo Nakoya (Tokyo), SUNY at Buffalo, Department of Media Studies at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Kodak Chair (Toronto), and Hallwall Arts Center (Buffalo); Cited Ruth Benedict - The Chrysanthemum and the Sword; Noel Burch - 'To the Distant Observer,' Vera Mackie - 'Feminism in Japan'