Wednesday, October 5, 2011


I think this video is wonderful, it is titled "Keys to Our Heart", created in 2008, by video artist Kalup Linzy. It combines elements of humor, along with common stereotypes of contemporary relationships and language with old black and white film. I was surprised at first to discover that the video even had sound, much less the amount of cussing it includes. But, when the characters do speak, especially the white male named "Jay", you can tell the voice is the deep voice of a black man, but also hints at being the voice of a homosexual man because it is so sassy. The way the speech is presented even makes you think that all of the voices may be the artist, or at least the same person, and the way the characters speak is also very contemporary. As far as visual poetics go, the video offers a huge contradiction. First of all, in the time period when this type of film was popular, black and white people would not be interacting as they do in the video, Linzy is playing with history in order to make a point about the stupidity of the way people treat with each other, and the reasons behind our actions. I think he is poking fun at relationships in general, in the past and present, and commenting on stereotypes. Also, there is truth in some of what the characters say, and they present popular opinions about dating from today- contrasting the film style and clothes of a past era.

2 comments:

  1. This video was both amusing and enlightening in that the contradictory style of the film and the content were juxtaposed in order to illustrate various stereotypes that have existed, and still do exist today.

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  2. I very much enjoyed this video. I thought the juxtapostion of the amusing, sassy dialogue and the old style way it is filmed force the viewer to think through their previous perceptions of the stereotypes presented in the video.

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