60 Unit; Bruise

Scope and Content: Wong's first colour videotape, specifically conceived for colour was part of the series The Mainstreet Tapes, bears the influence of several artistic genres popular in the 1970s, including performance and body art. We see Ken Fletcher draw several millilitres of blood from his arm and inject the co…

Physical Description: 1 videocassette (4 min., 30 sec.) : VHS, Quantegy, T-30, SP, col., NTSC, 4:3, si. ; 1/2 inch

Scope and Content: Wong's first colour videotape, specifically conceived for colour was part of the series The Mainstreet Tapes, bears the influence of several artistic genres popular in the 1970s, including performance and body art. We see Ken Fletcher draw several millilitres of blood from his arm and inject the contents of the syringe into Paul Wong's back, just under the skin. The camera closes in on this, observing the slow response of the immune system as the skin turns red and purple. What was originally intended as a sort of ritual uniting the young men as blood brothers, with implicit reference to drug use, has become a disturbing and dangerous act twenty years later, in an era when AIDS evokes our deepest fears and anxieties. Directed by Paul Wong and Kenneth Fletcher.