Art News Magazine

"The Fabulous Chameleon." Charles Hagen. Art News Magazine

A primordial mass of swirling yellow forms swims across the television screen. From time to time there appears a shape that might be a hand. Then another hand, this time clutching a paintbrush, cuts through the turbulent image and begins to paint elegant Japanese kanji characters down the side of the picture. For the next half hour this videotape, Edin Vélez's Meaning of the Interval takes us on a kaleidoscopic tour of the contradictory images of modern Japan, from the bullet train to a yakuza's tatoo session, from frenetic snarls of traffic to the mysterious gestures of Butoh dancers.

Velez's work, with his fluid command of advanced technology, exemplifies the powerful art being made in video today.