Videos

3 vignettes
reindeer in the mountains
the reluctant narrator
13 instances
burning of the nauvoo temple
52 used shirts
the last word in lonesome is me
preface
demos, covers, and unreleased
stakeout!
a little bit of nothing

 

little_bit_1 little_bit_2
little_bit_3 little_bit_4
little_bit_5 little_bit_6
   

A Little Bit of Nothing... 8 Colour Videos. SVHS. 1998-2000. 45 minutes


Synopsis
A Little Bit of Nothing is a collection of eight videos that grew out of a small but significant translation I stumbled across in Buster Keaton's autobiography. "A little bit of nothing," comes from the Spanish term pamplinas. It is a word that does not easily translate into English. Keaton and a friend were attending the bullfights one afternoon, when the crowd realizing the silent film star was in their presence swarmed and began yelling at him. Keaton believed they were ridiculing him, taunting his American presence. Sensing Keaton was worried, his friend, a native of Spain, set the actor at ease. He told him not to worry, that they were in fact praising him and that their cheers were honorary. Inquiring as to what they were saying, Keaton's friend replied they were calling him "a little bit of nothing", which in Spanish is equivalent to the "hole in a doughnut" or a "blank sheet of paper".

This video work grew out of that small but significant translation.

Play Video

 

^top