The Box is pleased to have presented a multi-night video screening of David Lamelas and Hildegarde Duane’s collaborative videos. The decades-long collaboration of Lamelas and Duane began in the late 1970’s when there was flowering of video art led by the Long Beach Museum of Art and local artists. Lamelas & Duane over the years of their collaboration have taken many difference scenerios including: Arabs & Jews, the Contras, Marcos & Imelda, The Dictator homeless (long before Saddam), the NRA and the gas crisis.
The Dictator ,1978, the first of these collaborative videos, depicts a Barbara Walters type character, played by Duane, interviewing the title character who was loosely based on Peron and Castro, played by Lamalas. Themes in these videos include the battle of the sexes, transformative power of the media, ironic twists of fate and an uncanny ability to predict the future. Styles have ranged from TV interview to documentary, film noir, short story and installation.
Lamela’s individual work explores the nature and influence of media. Duane’s works as a multi-media storyteller. These videos of Lamelas and Duane are an examination of power and glamour via social satire. Lamelas & Duane’s work has been exhibited at MOMA New York, the Whitney Museum, MOCA, Hartford Atheneum, ICA Boston, Long Beach Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou Paris, Museo Tamayo Mexico City and various other museums and galleries worldwide.