Tony Conrad | Authorized to Surrender: Weekend Video Screening

Authorized to Surrender: A Video Retrospective 1977-1990
On view in the Bartos Theater
Saturdays and Sundays, 1-5PM
Tony Conrad organized a single compilation of his videos for public installation and screening: Authorized to Surrender, which featured videos created between 1977 and 1990 and was presented daily during the artist’s 1991 exhibition at The Kitchen in New York. However, beginning in the 1980s, Conrad was regularly invited to present and speak about his videos at museums, galleries, and art centers around the world, and his work was featured in important video festivals and touring group video compilations. At the same time, he began sharing his work on different public access platforms. Such formats and platforms were how the majority of new video art was seen during this period, however, these were usually one-off screenings, and none of Conrad’s later videos were shared for distribution. Reckoning with Conrad’s vast and incredibly rich video production will hopefully be the subject of a future, more focused exhibition survey, but in order to better represent the scope of Conrad’s practice within this retrospective, the exhibition’s curators have chosen to include an additional selection of videos in the Bartos Theater.
Part 1. Snapshot History
Studio of the Streets #27, 1991, 20 minutes
The Far Away Look, 1988, 23 minutes
Teddy Tells Jokes, 1980, 4 minutes
Long-shot/Run/Dead, 1986, 11 minutes
Part 2. The Subject is Sex(un)less: Spotting Gender
Combat Status Go, 1981, 10 minutes
In Line, 1985, 7 minutes
Run Dick, Run Jane, 1985, 3 minutes
Concord Ultimatum, 1977, 10 minutes
Eye Contact, 1985, 8 minutes
An Immense Majority, 1987, 7 minutes
Vidi Vici: Narrative and the Death of Desire, 1988, 11 minutes
Part 3. Praxis Spaces
Weak Bodies and Strong Wills, 1986, 5 minutes
Height 100, 1983, 8 minutes
Your Friend, 1982–85, 10 minutes
Movie Show, 1977, 4 minutes
Redressing Down, 1988, 18 minutes
No Europe, 1990, 14 minutes
Part 4. The Science of (Ob)serving
Ipso Facto, 1985, 7 minutes
Research: Knowing With Television, 1983–85, 7 minutes
Cycles of 3’s and 7’s, 1977, 12 minutes
Suckerman, 1986, 8 minutes
Sip Twice, Sandry, 1983, 1 minute
Lookers, 1984, 3 minutes