Karen Redgreene

George spends quality time with his friends Karen and Carla in this unconventional, glitchy, collaged holiday video. HOLIDAZE filters a gift exchange through a lightly ironic, kitschy palette: whizzing geometric irises, stock footage of angelic-looking kids opening presents, and MIDI versions of Christmas songs. Kuchar’s magic was his ability to see the cinematic potential in everything around him—here, he finds endearing humor in three friends trying to work a landline phone. It became a tradition for Kuchar to break out the camera during his friends’ holiday festivities, but HOLIDAZE is unique for its visual verve, with lo-fi effects reminiscent of an arcade game.

In a garden of roses and memorabilia from darkest Africa, a man and woman ponder the joy of cooking and the companionship of cats. Goodies for the guts abound in this visual essay on feline friendship and far away places. An electronic voyage beyond the stench of house and garden that transports the viewer- and cat- to the promised land.

Writes Kuchar: "It was my 50th birthday this year (1992) and my friend's birthday, so I explored our position in time and dusty place with a prognostication on future inertia." In this chapter of his ongoing Video-8 diary, Kuchar's birthday becomes an occasion to ponder mortality, dust, agoraphobia and relationships. Documenting the hilarious yet ultimately melancholy dramas of the everyday within the claustrophobic confines of his apartment, Kuchar may be going nowhere, but, as he notes, "at least we're going nowhere together."