http://www.vasulka.org
K
Vasulka Archive
Robert Ashley
From the publication: Kitchen turns Twenty by Lee Morrissey 1992



Beginning of a Movement



I visited Steina and Woody Vasulka in Santa Fe recently. The house they live in is more or less a total chaos of technology and art. Video stuff all over the place. Electronic music. Computers. Cameras. Piles of tape. Robots. Half-eaten installations. Almost the perfect picture of the artist's studio and the way the artist works. Another dimension of life. It was an inspiration. I had been trying to clean up in case some senator called on me and wanted to know what I was up to. I realized when I was with them I had lost the vision and when I got home I had to start making some changes. They have not lost the vision. It was like being in the presence of the oracle. They were in a good mood, as usual. Even though the larger area is, I have read, owned, but not inhabited by the extremely rich in-t1ight capital from South America and elsewhere, the general feeling is that seven dollars an hour is a good wage if you can get it. So there is a tendency for artists to feel like they should stick together, which in my experience is the signal of the beginning of a Movement. It didn't seem unusual to find Woody and Steina there. As I looked around it occurred to me that this is probably the way The Kitchen started. I mean, it looked so hard and full of possibilities at the same time. I thought we should take the opportunity of The Kitchen retrospective to wish them luck on their project. And I took a few photos so that people can see how the past (and probably the future) looks.