HoustonChronicle.com - Be a part of 'Video Gong Show' at Aurora

Come be a part of 'Video Gong Show'

By MOLLY GLENTZER

Houston contemporary art watchers may recall former Glassell School of Art Core Fellow Mark Allen's short-lived but provocative experimental galleries, Revolution Summer and LAX, from the mid-1990s. Now Allen's back, if only for a weekend, and he's wired this time.

The self-described "art impresario" is staging Video Gong Show Friday at the Aurora Picture Show. Conceived with Aurora director Andrea Grover, the event is an open screening cum video battle.

The Aurora audience (the former church seats 100) will be able to vote anonymously as they watch the competing videos, by pressing buttons on pen-like instruments. The system will tabulate votes in real time and display the percentage of unhappy viewers on the screen. A video will be "gonged" — and turned off — when more than half of the audience votes against it. Prizes will be awarded to the most entertaining and most torturous entries.

"I make art, and a lot of things I do happen to involve technology," Allen says. "I create situations and experiences for people. The art is when it all comes together. Drama happens when the videos get gonged. It's like the audience becomes one person."

As a Core Fellow, the charismatic Allen "got a reputation for being someone who roused a lot of energy," says Grover. He was primarily a sculptor and painter. Today he runs one of Los Angeles' most innovative galleries, Machine Project.

He's also one of the minds behind C-level, a gallery that stages events and installations inspired by computer games.

Video Gong Show is at 8 p.m. Friday at the Aurora Picture Show, 800 Aurora. For those willing to risk being gonged, VHS video format entries will be accepted at the door.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, Allen presents Remade, re-remade and re-re-remade, a look at the work of video artists Martin Arnold, Eric Fensler, Kelly Sears and Eddo Stern.

Admission is $5 at the door. For more information, call 713-868-2101.