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Art Jones: An Interview

Video Data Bank

1993 01:00:00 United StatesEnglishColorMonoVideo
Tags:
African-American, Interview, Visual Art, Hollywood, VDB Interviews

Description

In this 1993 contribution to the On Art and Artists series, artist Art Jones describes his entry into the world of activist media, and the genesis of his belief in the potential for a democratized street-level media. Hailing from the Bronx, Jones recalls his personal dislocation during college, when he began studying film and video at SUNY Purchase. At that time, Jones experienced a cultural isolation, which he mobilized to fuel his practice. This willingness to confront issues of representation and absence, asserting the validity of his own subjecthood, would become a defining characteristic of his work.

In this interview, Jones positions his art-making within the context of contemporary portrayals of African American culture in popular media. He argues for the need of an active critical voice within the black community to condemn Hollywood’s simplification of the African-American experience. He also advocates for the development of alternative distribution networks that would help generate networks for community produced media images.

– Kyle Riley

Interview conducted by Cyrille Phipps in October 1993, edited in 2014

The Video Data Bank is the leading resource in the United States for videotapes by and about contemporary artists. The VDB collection features innovative video work made by artists from an aesthetic, political or personal point of view. The collection includes seminal works that, seen as a whole, describe the development of video as an art form originating in the late 1960's and continuing to the present. Works in the collection employ innovative uses of form and technology, mixed with original visual style to address contemporary art and cultural themes.

Founded in 1976 at the inception of the media arts movement in the United States, the Video Data Bank is one of the nation's largest providers of alternative and art-based video. Through a successful national and international distribution service, the VDB distributes video art, documentaries made by artists, and recorded interviews with visual artists, photographers and critics.