Screen Tests

Screen Test – Tom, 2009, video, 04:05
Screen Test – Sugi, 2009, video, 04’05
video content provided by Tom and Sugi

The Screen Tests are a pair of videos of Tom and Sugi. The title quotes the series of films by Andy Warhol depicting close-up living portraits of his friends. As in Warhol’s works, the Screen Tests are slow-motion studies detailing minute changes of expression, and the subject’s self-consciousness in front of the camera. Each Screen Test provides a view of interspecies intimacy through the gaze of the canine looking back at the human. The viewer has an opportunity to witness the subtleties of dog perceptual sense. Each dog’s extreme concentration and steadfast observation returns the viewer’s similar attention.

Shown at:

  • 2010 “passages”, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada;
  • 2012 exhibition: “Vanimaux”, Remington/Gam Gallery, Vancouver. Curated by Katie Stewart.
  • 2010 CUE: Artists’ Videos, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver. curated by Daina Augaitis and Christopher Eamon.

 

Production Team:
Julie Andreyev: video editing, production
Masayo Takada: cinematography
Tom and Sugi: concept, actors
Hao Ting Mai: Intern

Associated publication:

Andreyev, Julie. “Dog Voice: A Memoir”, Interactive Futures ’11: Animal Influence, Antennae, Issue 21, www.antennae.org.uk

Supported by: Intersections Digital Studios, Emily Carr University of Art + Design