“Dick Whyte’s Recon series... remixes scenes from films or “high-art” works with reenactments that people have posted on YouTube, more or less celebrating the creativity that occurs the moment a person hits the record button. By remixing the originals with the reenactments by average people his works 'deterritorialize the category of 'high-art' and reclaim these works for the people as 'folk' art'.”
"I recently discovered that someone had a similar idea about a year ago and collected all the Andy Warhol Eats a Hamburger videos on their blog. Ha! Great minds think alike, or as I like to say, 'like minds like to tell each other they're great.'"
This work is part of a series of films by Whyte reconstructing moments of 20th century art out of remakes sourced from the internet.
Related works:
John Cage - 4'33" [May '68 Comeback Special RECON]
The Death of the Author [Psycho Shower Scene RECON]
![John Cage - 4'33" [Removal]](/images/255x165/images/videos/stills/36875732.jpg)
Whyte references the YouTube copyright algorhythm that seeks to protect authorship from appropriation and reinvention.
A video by Dick Whyte and Tao Wells documenting the installation/performance The Beneficiary's Office (2010).
An experimental film that superimposes seven of Lumiere's first films over top of one another.
![Untitled [Matrix 4 John Whitney]](/images/255x165/images/videos/stills/47830486.jpg)
A work made from found footage of Atari music videos, combined with slowed down Atari 8-bit music.