Corpus Loquendi (Body for Speaking): Video in Halifax 1972-1982

Through a fortuitous combination of people, place and time, Halifax became a prominent centre of experimental video production in the 1970s. Video artist and NSCAD professor Jan Peacock focuses on the early development of video as an art form, on its often transgressive behaviour and obsessive preoccupation with body and language, in a selection of works by Vito Acconci, David Askevold, Dara Birnbaum, Susan Britton, Martha Wilson and many others. Peacock’s re-examination of this period sheds light on the foundations of video language at a time when mainstream TV became, as she remarks, “baby-sitter, clergyman, narcotic and therapist to entire nations.” The exhibition and catalogue have been generously funded by the Exhibitions Assistance Program of the Canada Council.