Government Property (1981)

Overview

Documentation of a 3-projector super-8 film performance. (one projector is hand-held by the filmmaker and moves during performance) Government Property acknowledges a film's familiar function to present the illusion of another time and space while, at the same time, presenting elements which allow the viewer to also experience an event in the present tense. The latter is suggested by including elements of the projection experience such as interchanging images amongst the projectors, shadows, and varying the size and position of the hand-held projected image. The title originated from the words "government property" which are printed on each sheet of toilet paper in the British Museum. The film images, shot between 1978 and 1981, include British newspaper accounts of the Queen of England, media news coverage of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, and other cultural and political monuments such as Stonehenge, the Salisbury (England) train station; the Trans-Canadian Railroad,

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