Steve Reinke

"Blast Counterblast" is a multifaceted, fascinating examination of the way intellectuals interact - through influence, argumentation, and criticism. Looking at both Wyndham Lewis' modernist publication "Blast" and Marshall McLuhan's 1969 response to it, "Counterblast", the contributors to this volume - a selection of writers, visual artists, performers, and filmmakers - skewer relational aesthetics and identity politics in order to restate what the role of identity formation is today. Taking McLuhan and Lewis as starting points, the essays in this volume develop and push the ideas presented in both "Blast" and "Counterblast". "Blast Counterblast" includes the writings of Maria Fusco, Michael Hoolboom, My Barbarian, Lane Relyea, and Ryan Trecartin.

By turns funny and abstruse, "The Shimmering Beast" brings together the best pieces of prose by accomplished video artist Steve Reinke. Hybrids of criticism, fiction, and personal essays, each chapter takes on another's work, while reinterpreting the role of the critic - as supplicant, as cannibal, as skeptic. Reinke looks at the visual arts with a particularly literary eye, notably in his shrewd writing on Philip Hoffman's film "Kitchener - Berlin", and his subjects are diverse and fascinating. Featured artists include filmmaker Frank Cole, video artists Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, photographer Doug Ischar, and more. Poetic, absurd, and tartly poignant, these texts record the process and reach of an artistic mind at the height of its powers.

Artist and writer Steve Reinke is best know for his video work, an acerbic oeuvre that spans over a decade and includes his most famous piece, The Hundred Videos, literally a hundred short videos in which he explores the myriad permutations of identity, sexuality and art. The titles of his videos -- In the Realm of Perpetual Embarrassment, Sad Disco Fantasia, How Photographs Are Stored in the Brain are some examples -- encapsulate the tenor of Reinke's work: deadpan, self-deprecating, personal and always funny. Composed of original and found footage (from home movies, training films, porn flicks), the videos are typically diaristic, often philosophical, even elegaic. The writing itself is extremely well-crafted, possessing a wit and intelligence that translated well to the page; what seems improvisatory on screen is in fact very polished and precise prose. Everybody Loves Nothing contains Reinke's scripts from 1996 to the present, accompanied by numerous illustrative stills. An extensive interview with filmmaker Mike Holboom provides a broad overview of Reinke's career, themes and ambitions. Introduction by Lisa Steele, artistic director of Vtape.