Video to Placate Artaud

It is no small occasion when Steve Reinke lets out three as-yet-unseen videos onto the world. These three works stack upon each other to create a tower with building blocks of beauty, terror, absurdity and logic. Glenn Gould, Antonin Artaud and Nathaniel Dorsky each prompt concise ruminations on febrile topics which seem obvious once spoken but could only have come from Reinke’s unique viewpoint. Terrifying and tender images and ideas spring forth from these concentrated, short bursts of rhetoric and provocation. — Herb Shellenberger