Exhibition Opening: ‘Five Miles of VHS Tape’

Five Miles of VHS Tape
Gibson + Recoder

On view: April 19 – May 11, 2025
Opening Reception: Sat., April 19, 5:30-8PM
Closing Reception: Sun., May 11, 3:30-6:30PM, with performance by Douglas Dunn + Dancers

An installation of sculptural and collage assemblages fabricated from the detritus of obsolete video tape.

The work is centered around the paradoxical and somewhat absurd, if not disturbing, notion that there was once a moving image medium in which images were recorded and preserved for playback on an extremely flimsy ribbon of mylar coated with a fine grain of iron oxide – otherwise known as rust. The VHS (Video Home System) tape was in essence already obsolete by the time it hit the market. “Planned obsolescence” was its modus operandi, though not exactly in some foreseeable afterlife of the medium but precisely at the very moment of its consumption, typically in the living room. We imagine ourselves at the receiving end of this circuit long after the materials have expired via their arbitrary decommission and replaced by newer ones, and discovering ways to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

– Gibson + Recoder, Kinoki (2025)

www.gibsonrecoder.com

Gallery hours: Thurs.-Sun., 1-6pm
Installations are viewable 24/7 through the Plus/Space gate
www.fivemyles.org
@fivemyles