Straight to Video: the First 10 Years of Vital 5
June 8 – July 20, 2007

Close on the heels of Tony Weathers rich installation, 911 Media Arts presented Straight to Video: the First 10 Years of Vital 5.

A decade of collaboration in the form of video and artifacts was featured in Straight to Video: the First 10 Years of Vital 5, an installation by Greg Lundgren and curated by 911 Affiliate Curator Steven Vroom. Still going strong, Vital 5 Productions has tested the boundaries of contemporary arts and the show will highlight the collective creative force that stretched, teased, and poked the art world and the viewer.

The man behind Vital 5 Productions, Greg Lundgren, assembled the mountains of digital documentation into a retrospective with a new media twist, featuring works by Dave Benham, Wynn Burke, Ted Grudowski, Tomiko Jones, Jennifer Lundgren, Mitch Mattraw, Carter Nelsen, Jeff Scott, Steven Stone, Adam Weintraub, and Robert Zverina.

Vital 5 came at a time when the costs of documenting work plummeted due to the rise of inexpensive digital still and video cameras. The volumes of photographs, videos and printed works held the fingerprints of hundreds of participating artists and thousands of viewers who works collectively and professionally to challenge and test the boundaries of contemporary art.

The idea for the exhibition came when 911 Affiliate Curator Steven Vroom was interviewing Greg Lundgren for an article about his ongoing art project The Hideout for The Capitol Hill Times. In the dim light of that popular bar on First Hill, Lundgren mentioned all the digital files he had. This casual aside prompted Vroom to invite Vital 5 to 911 Media to formally present the documentation as a retrospective exhibition.

“Vital 5 has been a significant force in the Seattle creative community, and this exhibition allows Seattle to take stock and recognize all the people who made Vital 5 happen” said Affiliate Curator Vroom.

For a complete catalog for this exhibition click on this link
vroomjournal.com/articles/V5.php

Vital 5 in Fragments
http://vroomjournal.com/video/Vital5.php