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Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos

Paul Kos

01:07:00

Collection: Box Sets , Single Artist Compilations

Tags: Art History, Humor, Landscape, Minimalism, Performance, Video History, Visual Art

Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos

Video Data Bank is proud to present the poetic work of West Coast conceptual artist Paul Kos. This two-disc box set features 25 video works that reveal how Kos mines humble materials for their physical properties and metaphorical possibilities. Included is a 50-page monograph containing specially commissioned essays that expand upon Kos’ five-decade long practice by art scholar Constance Lewallen and SFMOMA’s Curator of Media Arts Rudolf Frieling. 

“I try to work under some of the following self-imposed precepts: reveal slowly; prove metaphor is more; heed site or be shortsighted; respect simple humble materials; prefer art that is, to art that is about; strive for equilibrium in message and messenger; and finally, opt for, but never expect, “partly cloudy, becoming mostly sunny.”
— Paul Kos in conversation with Jarrett Earnest, Brooklyn Rail, 2012

"[Paul Kos’] work is conceptual to a degree, but it takes a real, generally sculptural, form. Add to that a strong vein of Dada absurdity and an ultra-dry wit, and it adds up to one of the Bay Area’s most entertaining, influential and important living artists.”
— Charles Desmarais, San Francisco Chronicle, 2016

 

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Included Titles
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Paul Kos

Hand Trap

1970 | 00:00:22

The artist swings a live-set small game trap near his extended other hand. The trap swings ominously: will it snap his fingers? The end comes quickly!This title is also available on Sympathetic…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Performance

Paul Kos

Pit and the Pendulum

1971 | 00:12:22

The artist uses wire to suspend a block of ice in a pit-like industrial space. He swings the ice block, which is lit by a similarly swinging light bulb on a separate pendulum.Kos places small game…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Performance

Paul Kos

Warlock(ing)

1971 | 00:07:30

In this early black and white, reel-to-reel video, small game traps are set to catch the rain.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

Collections: Early Video Art, Single Titles
Tags: Conceptual Art, Environment

Paul Kos

A Trophy/Atrophy

1972 | 00:03:13

A two-headed calf died when one head atrophied. It became a trophy that the artist used as a source for this 16mm film transferred to video.This title is also available on Sympathetic …

Collections: Early Video Art, Single Titles
Tags: Animals, Conceptual Art, Experimental Film

Paul Kos

rEVOLUTION: Notes for the Invasion: mar mar march

1972 | 00:02:10

"A major influence for generating ideas for me was not what I could contrive on my desktop, but being open and receptive to “accident”. For instance, one evening in 1972 while typing a syllabus for…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Humor, Language, Performance, War

Paul Kos

Pilot Butte/Pilot Light

1974 | 00:06:37

Produced in 1974, and restaged in 2002, near Pilot Butte in southwestern Wyoming.The artist makes a pilot light using ice, which he has fashioned into a magnifying lens to start a small fire.This…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Conceptual Art, Environment, Performance

Paul Kos

Ice Makes Fire

1974 | 00:02:53

Ice is fashioned into a magnifying lens and it is used to start a fire. Created in 1974 and restaged 2004. This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Performance

Paul Kos

Riley, Roily, River

1975 | 00:01:30

The seemingly groundless debate as to whether a river is "riley" or "roily" can be interpreted as an example of language's descriptive failure. A shouting match over how to describe the river has no…

Collections: Early Video Art, Single Titles
Tags: Environment, Language, Video History

Paul Kos, Marlene Kos

Lightning

1976 | 00:01:23

When I look for the lightning, it never strikes. When I look away, it does. Filmed inside a car, this tape focuses on observation of natural phenomena, presenting the obverse of the, "If a tree falls…

Collections: Early Video Art, Single Titles
Tags: Environment, Video History

Paul Kos, Marlene Kos

Sirens

1977 | 00:06:47

Taking its title from the sea nymphs in Homer’s Odyssey—the treacherous spirits whose sweet voices lured sailors to their death upon the rocks—Sirens presents four hallucinatory scenes, visual puns…

Collections: Early Video Art, Single Titles
Tags: Literature, Photography, Video History, Myth, Mental Landscape

Paul Kos

Ramp

1980 | 00:02:07

On a gradually inclined plane, attempts are made to scale the rise, and rubber shoe marks leave evidence of the point where all of humanity fails.This title is also available on Sympathetic…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Performance, Sculpture, Conceptual Art

Paul Kos

Gargoyle V

1985 | 00:01:10

A Yosemite gargoyle climbs two gothic arches.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Architecture, Environment, Performance

Paul Kos

Gargoyle VIII

1985 | 00:02:45

A Yosemite gargoyle climbs two gothic arches.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos. 

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Body, Landscape, Performance

Paul Kos

Sympathetic Vibrations

1986 | 00:04:10

Twelve church bells are rung daily for 30 days in a sculptural setting at the Capp Street Project in San Francisco. Ringers progress from practice sessions on beer bottles to a full-scale ring.This…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Performance, Sculpture, Sound, Conceptual Art, City

Paul Kos

Brieftauben

1987 | 00:03:02

After a failed attempt to melt down ballistic missiles into bells and site them in the city they had once targeted, 100 homing pigeons were used as metaphors, each carrying a small bell and capsule…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags:

Paul Kos

Tower of Babel

1987 | 00:14:10

75 people speak 50 languages sometimes simultaneously.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Language, Performance

Paul Kos

International Bed and Breakfast

1992 | 00:02:00

When everyone has forgotten the romantic refrains of the Internationale sung in different languages, Pablito, a blue front Amazon parrot, capable of living to 100 years old, will remember. He rings…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: History, Humor, Language, Music

Paul Kos

La Vache!

1996 | 00:02:41

Caught by video on a mountainside, Swiss cows compose and orchestrate a bell sonata.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos.

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Environment, Landscape, Music

Paul Kos

Coal Train in 2/4 Time

1996 | 00:04:47

Filled to capacity, each car of a 157 car train sounds a percussive note in this homage to John Coltrane. And not one coal train, but two.This title is also available on Sympathetic …

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Expedition/Travel, Music

Paul Kos

2x2

1997 | 00:04:43

On the narrow stairway that exits Paul Kos’s Tunnel\Chapel, where his 27-channel Chartres Bleu installation is housed, Kos writes with both hands on opposite walls, recording the narrative of Noah’s…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Drawing, Performance

Paul Kos, Akram Zaatari

Reflection

1998 | 00:11:11

Within the historic district of Saida, Lebanon, a boy learns to capture light.Cast: Husni Tutunji Camera: Abdallah al-Bunni

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Photography

Paul Kos

Can't Get It Right No Matter Where I Go: A Duet in Light and Dark

2005 | 00:05:25

Neither a Sierra snowfield nor a tunnel proves to be the perfect studio space for the improvement of one’s craft. Only practice counts.This title is also available on Sympathetic Vibrations…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Landscape

Paul Kos

Flørli I

2007 | 00:03:19

The combination of a found site (an old power station in Norway), and a found object (a log) and a found instrument ( a wooden floor) produce a found sound in this acoustically alive action. This…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Installation, Sound

Paul Kos

Flørli IV

2007 | 00:02:19

Relying on the magic echo found in an old power Station in Norway, the artist whistles and marches to the Internationale, a May Day workers’ song. This title is also available on Sympathetic…

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Installation, Performance, Sound

Paul Kos

Basho

2007 | 00:04:12

Split screen. On the left is a walk up a twisting, rocky trail while on the right is Kanji caligraphy describing the action, completing a Haiku by Basho.This title is also available on …

Collections: Single Titles
Tags: Language, Mental Landscape