ReAction: "From the Portfolio of Doggedness"

2003, 3:30, shot on miniDV

ReAction: "From the Portfolio of Doggedness" springs from the desire for familiarity with a temporal- and site-specific artwork by Valie Export and Peter Weibel: "Aus der Mappe der Hundigkeit," a 1968 action “proclaiming the negative utopia of erect posture in our animalistic society."

Treating the original as a script, ReAction features the Viennese semiotician Bernadette Wegenstein walking the artist Tony Conrad across a busy intersection in downtown Buffalo, New York (as well as guest performances by clients of the Canine Clubhouse). ReAction looks for slippages between the original action and the video reenactment, and considers tensions between animals, humans and cars as they move through the built environment.

The soundtrack is an original 1969 performance by the Golden Galaxy Symphony, in which Beverly Grant Conrad directed the musicians to maximize their vocal chords’ capacities to mimic a barnyard of animals.

Caroline Koebel—director, camera, editor

Tony Conrad—performing as Peter Weibel

Bernadette Wegenstein—performing as Valie Export

Carolyn Tennant—production manager

Canine Clubhouse clients—extras

The Golden Galaxy Symphony, 1969—sound

Beverly Grant Conrad—GGS director

Tony Conrad— GGS producer