A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I saw Karen Finley twice. Once was the famous chocolate performance, the second time was in Provincetown, and she was in line in front of me at the post office, pushing a baby carriage. Now, why isn't the second event considered a work of art? I don't get it. I mean, if I was making it up, it would be fiction, but it really happened. And after going to the Guggenheim last year hoping to find Jeff Koons and punch him in the throat, I saw several video installations. A couple were really good, but most were pure crap. It led me to conclude that a piece of video art should be at least as interesting as the average episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, though a friend of mine just back from New York emailed me today and says that they should be at least as good as the average cable-access show. "That's still too high for most of them to reach, buy hey, what are standards for?"
I've met Karen Finley -- and the old cliche is true as she's extremely nice, pleasant, almost demure in person. I believe I saw a Yam performance of hers, but I'd imagine it's very similar to her choco-work. Here's a link to some Bill Viola videos, but I can't get them to work on my machine. I've seen quite a few of his pieces -- the first one "The Crossing" is great in person: the screen is massive and the effect is a blast. http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/viola/dhtml/content/fr_menu_dhtml.html