Video Out

Still Lives (In the Americas)

Extending the connection between art making and life, Still Lives...has an elaborated structure that is made up of three parts - a central body book-ended by an opening and an ending sequence. The central portion is a direct pairing of Tam's paintings and their video counterparts. The viewers are introduced to 10 Asian men (Tam's friend who once posed for his paintings some years back) in their own habitats, working, playing or just simply living. There are no urgent histories to be told, except all real people seen in their everyday lives. By constructing a fictitious story line around this middle segment, Tam seeks to disrupt the otherwise formal structure of the video. While the fast paced opening foreshadows what is to come, the more somber ending provides a space for further reflection and meditation. By suggesting the active hand behind the painting and the video, the presence of the artist is felt throughout the piece. In such a way, by intergrating the artist and his subjects, Tam s self and the world around him, Still Lives...evokes a bigger picture - rather than individual stories, it is a portrait made for a community. Music: Allesandro Marcello & Pietro Locatelli Sound: Ho Tam Written by: Ho Tam