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Connie Walsh [Videonale.10 & 12]

*1966, in the USA, lives in Los Angeles USA
Studied at Colgate University, Hamilton USA and Rhode Island School of Design, Providence USA

Exhibitions [selection]:

2012 Un-natural Landscapes, Pip-Squeak Chapeau Etc., New York USA

2011 Connie Walsh and Kathleen Johnson, ACME, Los Angeles, CA USA

2009 The Fuzzy Set, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA USA

         Mixed Greens 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Mixed Greens, New York, NY USA

         Videonale 12, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn GER

2007 High Desert Test Site, Joshua Tree, CA USA

2006 Panoramica: archivo video_dumbo, El Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City MEX

         Exploding Television-Satellite of Love, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Witte de With      
         Contemporary  Art Center, Rotterdam NL


Connie Walsh [Videonale.10] x

How To, 2003, 26:50 min, color, sound [Videonale.10]

Where is the boundary between a game and reality? Can innocence turn into danger? When and how is human aggression created? These and other questions are raised by Connie Walsh’s video Cenetar. In the first few images, we see a child playing war. It is wearing headphones and talking into a microphone, as if playing an interactive computer game. The blue sky in the background and the child enthroned like an angel among the clouds convey a sense of peace. Not only do we hear the voice of the boy, but also the sound of a pilot’s voice, whose sentences mix with those of the child’s. The collage-like interplay of dialogue is disturbing, since the innocent child is giving orders to destroy. The headphones and microphone make it clear that there is not much difference between the little boy and the pilot, who is playing the game in real life. At the end of the four-minute video, one hears the noise of bombs and the child suddenly disappears. Is the boy pretending to be an adult, or is the pilot imagining the whole video during a real mission? Walsh shows us an exploration of human aggression. Her social critique emerges in the staging of an ambivalent situation in which it is impossible to tell the difference between the game and reality.

Milen Zhelev


Connie Walsh [Videonale.12] x

Cenetar, 2008, 4:00 min, colour, sound [Videonale.12]

How to, by American video artist Connie Walsh, consists of five episodes of equal length, with a deliberate documentary feel. Each short segment features a person speaking about what he or she does for a living, which in each case seems to be more of a passion than a mere job. The way in which the portrayed people present themselves to the camera gives the recordings the character of a psychogram. Viewers gain insight into these people's personal idiosyncrasies and their viewpoints on their more or less unusual jobs solely through their detailed and theoretical descriptions, instead of being treated to any sort of filmed example of what they are talking about. A surfer, for example, is shown sitting in a car while he describes just how he catches a wave at the right time to ride it. Video is transformed here into a purely informative medium, which records "reality" in the manner of a documentary. The camera becomes a psychological mirror that, if "held up" to a person long enough, is able to capture all of his or her nuances.

Nadia Ismail

Connie Walsh [ Videonale.10 & 12 ]