Ant Farm Video

Experimental art, like topical comedy, usually has a short shelf life. What seemed audacious and cutting-edge for one generation often comes across as stale and pretentious after a few years: a case in point being this compilation of film and video segments from the Ant Farm, a San Francisco-area collective of “radical architects, video and performance artists, and visionaries” formed by Doug Michels and Chip Lord in 1968. Whether they were actually cutting-edge in their prime, even by the excesses of that distant era, is open to debate; they often seem more like publicity hounds than genuine artists and actually define themselves as such, claiming their “media events” would have been called “publicity stunts” in previous years. Regardless, the seven pieces here seem fairly dull today: dressing up like astronauts to drive a 1959 Cadillac Biarritz into a pyramid of old televisions (the infamous “Media Burn”), burying 10 white Cadillacs nose-down in a field, appearing on an Australian TV talk show dressed in Easter Bunny and Don Juan costumes, etc. If there was a point to all of this during their mid-1970s heyday, it is hopelessly lost today. At two hours, this hodgepodge of short films (most of them padded with found footage from TV newscasts) is something of an endurance test, even for those who love avant-garde filmmaking. DVD extras include audio commentary on “Media Burn” and Easter eggs. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)