The
artist decides to found his own art school and begins by assembling
materials for the library. Finding too many words are available, he
glues together the unnecessary pages of books.
Ever
on the lookout for learning opportunities, Reinke envisions an art institute
where you don't have to make anything, and with a library full of books
glued together. All the information's there — you just don't have
to bother reading it! (New York Video Festival catalogue 2002)
Reinke is the David Sedaris of Canadian video, though usually smuttier.
Or at least that's how I explain his comical first person accounts of
his obsessions and neuroses. He packs his ambitious The Hundred
Videos (1990-96) and Sad Disco Fantasia with smart observations,
but his cleverness occasionally wears thin. Anal Masturbation and
Object Loss is one of his finest pieces yet. The image is minimal:
a shot of Reinke glue sticking the pages of a book together. On the
soundtrack, he explains his fantasy about a library where all the books
have been sealed shut: all the information remains there, but no one
has to bother reading it. He also explains "what's wrong with psychoanalysis,"
recounting his disappointment in reading Freud's "Anal Masturbation
and Object Choice." Rather than delivering on the promise of its
title, the case history tells of a girl who couldn't go to he bathroom
after her brother died. Reinke asks, "Why isn't it called 'Constipation
and Fraternal Death'?" Why, indeed.” (Best Film and Television
of 2002 by Lucas Hilderbrand)
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