Charlesworth made COMMUNIQUÉS FOR TAPE as a performance video extension of his 1980 photo-novella, Special Communiqués. The central character is the same, a diarist prisoner named Marty. As in the photo-novella, Marty's confined experiences are punctuated by radio and television news flashes. After undergoing interrogations from a sentient tape recorder, he begins to lose his sense of purpose.

 

Direct address and medium-close shots are frequent in this video. The camera is static and uses long takes. The single set is a Muybridge-like gridded wall. Communiqués for Tape is the first of four videos made without a crew in 1981-82. Along with Special Communiqués and Eddie Glove, it was featured as part of the exhibition Persona at the New Museum in 1981.

 

CAST: Bruce Charlesworth

 

1981, 3/4-inch video, 20 minutes