Edward Rankus

Born -

Edward Rankus is an independent video artist whose work references the symbolic systems of science-fiction films, behavioral psychology experiments, sub-atomic particle physics, Spanish mysticism, and Zen Buddhism. Concerned with the hazy borderline between inner and outer worlds, his work invokes a surrealist/expressionist aesthetic. As a student of Dan Sandin and the late Phil Morton, Rankus is part of the second generation of Chicago video artists whose approach to video differed from their more process-oriented teachers. Rankus's work is masterfully edited and deeply ironic, and he is able to wring drama from mundane subjects. The play of symbols is very important in Rankus's work, which in some ways approaches still-life painting in its juxtapositioning of essential elements to create moods and meanings. Rankus layers various cultural symbols and builds on viewer expectations to question the arbitrary conventional boundaries of "reality" and "self."

"These tapes visually investigate perennial themes of impermanence, the disillusion and mortality of one's body--often using simple objects as stand-ins for that body."
--Ed Rankus

Artist Collection List

Title Year Runtime Collection
AlienNATION 1979 29 minutes 40 seconds Single Titles
Ed Rankus Videoworks: Volume 1 1998 56 minutes Single Artist Compilations
Go Fall Apart 2003 18 minutes 25 seconds Single Titles
In the Sun Room 2008 13 minutes 27 seconds Single Titles
Naked Doom 1983 17 minutes Single Titles
Nerve Language 1995 10 minutes 7 seconds Single Titles
Poolside Manners 2010 8 minutes 40 seconds Single Titles
She Heard Voices 1986 10 minutes Single Titles
The Cage of Sand 2018 10 minutes 40 seconds Single Titles
The Elektra/Vampyr Variations 2009 28 minutes Single Titles
Thorns vs. Roses 2014 13 minutes 34 seconds Single Titles