USA, Art / Artist, 1987, Color, Magnetic Stereo, 00:10:00
The wisdom of hand and heart comes pouring from the presence of John Cage, caught on video by the eye of Chris Felver. Cage is at Crown Point Press in San Francisco preparing for an exhibition of his etchings, based on smoke and rock formations. Remembering Black Mountain College, an international community, where, as Cage puts it, the best things happened when students and teachers sat around the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table talking up the universe of things. He cites the people who made it exciting: Robert Rauschenberg, Charles Olson, Josef Albers, and Buckminster Fuller. Detailing the first "happening," Cage underscores that his music is more a reflection of what is outside of him... more info
USA, Art / Artist, 1991, Color, Magnetic Stereo, 00:30:00
Performance at San Francisco Art Institute. Dancing with the center of himself, John Cage performs the silences and sounds that have been his calling card since he first stepped forward. The radical basis of his art is reflected here in a mesmerizing thirty minute performance suggestive of archaic chants, traditional incantation, and the outline of more decorative, filled-in works of art. Spare and lean, his performance sings with the same authority one finds in his music, his writing, and his visual expressions.... more info