Favorite Failures #2

I was looking for a particular Pipilotti Rist video to embed, but couldn't get it.

So here is another Pipi video that I like a lot which also captures a frenetic sense of struggle and a constant falling-short. I like to watch her exploding the promise of pop music into a repetitive parody. It's almost joyful.

I'm Not the Girl Who Misses Much Pipilotti Rist (1986)



Searching for that video I found this video, which is fun to think about as also exploding the promise of pop music.

I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman Britney Spears- Sims 2 (2001)



But the Pipilotti Rist video I really wanted to show you can be seen here:

(Absolution) Pipilotti's Mistakes (1988)

Rist made this video while working at a commercial video production facility, using the equipment in her time off to make things like this. She pushes the technology to its limit, eking out the wonderful interference and feedback she wants. This video scramble she intercuts with images of herself randomly falling, being held underwater and sometimes emphatically dancing with large flowers. Like in I'm Not the Girl Who Misses Much she is exuberantly celebrating and destroying the kingly commercial power of video!

What I love about these videos (and what you'll hear more about if you get the new AVB DVD and read the insert(!!)) is how eloquently she uses and manipulates the faults of the medium. Working in video often times feels like you're coaxing a reluctant muse. It's frustrating but, ultimately rewarding when you're able to embrace the lucky mistakes you stumble into, not to mention the patience you learn.