Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Blinky, USA 1988, video, colour, sound, 15 min
‘In the novella Blinky the Friendly Hen (1978), artist Jeffrey Vallance documented the supermarket purchase of a frozen chicken and its burial in the Los Angeles S.P.C.A. Pet Memorial Park. Naming the fryer Blinky, Vallance transformed poultry into pet, paying tribute to the billions of hens sacrificed each year for our consumption. Ten years later questions of the true cause of Blinky’s death continue to swirl. Blinky, the videotape, documents the search for this cause. Alas, like the shroud of Turin, Blinky’s death cannot be completely resolved. Blinky’s ten-year story ends where it began, in our culture’s glistening, dreamlike symbol of heavenly closure, the supermarket.’ –Norman Yonemoto
Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Made in Hollywood, USA 1990, video, colour, sound, 56 min
Steeped in irony, Made in Hollywood depicts the personal and cultural mediation of reality and fantasy, desire and identity via the myths of television and cinema. Quoting from a catalogue of popular styles and sources, from TV commercials to The Wizard of Oz, the Yonemotos construct a parable of the Hollywood image-making industry from a pastiche of narrative clichés: a small-town ingenue goes West to find her dream and loses her innocence; the patriarch of a Hollywood studio nears death; a New York couple seeks screenwriting fame and fortune in the movies. Featuring Patricia Arquette, Mary Woronov and The Wooster Group’s Ron Vawter, the video layers artifice upon artifice, constructing an image-world where reality and representation, truth and simulation, are meaningless distinctions.
Followed by a discussion and Q&A with Bruce Yonemoto and Jeffrey Vallance.
This programme has mature themes and is recommended for audiences over 16 years of age.
Bruce and Norman Yonemoto Blinky 1988, film still. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Bruce and Norman Yonemoto Made in Hollywood 1990, film still. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York