Viet Flakes

For "Viet Flakes" Carolee Schneemann used an 8-mm camera to film numerous black and white illustrations from newspapers and magazines showing the atrocities perpetrated upon the population of Vietnam by the American military. Close-ups of faces, bodies, and groups show people who are frightened, weeping, or in mourning. The rapid camera movements and blurry shots that sometimes make what is shown unrecognizable follow one another in a quick succession, so the eye is not given time to focus on individual images. The sound track is similarly a collage, made up of audio snippets from sources ranging from classical music, 1960s pop, and religious chants. While we look at fragments of violence, the Beatles impart good cheer with “We Can Work It Out.”