Local artist Jesse Malmed feels that his work bears a relationship to language that’s “somewhere between poetry and comedy.” His video pieces—which will be exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art this Tuesday at 6 PM in a show called Untitled (Just Kidding)—are filled with puns and formal jokes, not to mention appropriations of mainstream comedy, video games, and other materials that might be considered too silly to be included in the world of experimental cinema. The 18-minute short Wreading (2012), for instance, incorporates images of clouds from Super Mario Bros. 3 as well as Muzak versions of Top 40 pop songs. Do Voices (2013), which closes Tuesday’s program, is constructed around reenactments of scenes from the Robin Williams comedy Mrs. Doubtfire that various fans have posted to YouTube.
Malmed also sees connections between his own practice as a maker of audio-visual collages and Williams’s performance style. “His performance was a kind of montage. In Mrs. Doubtfire, you know, there are scenes where he’s going between different roles in the same shots. The best parts of that movie is where he gets to play multiple roles and basically do what he did onstage, go between these six-second impersonations. It’s very much like in editing, where you can compile things from all over and put them together.”
