Donald O’Finn’s art consists of videos ranging in length from seconds to hours, from single source origins to countless. They are monstrously expressive, often dense montages. The repurposed material is spun and recontextualized into very personal narratives, into cultural autopsies, into commercial archeology, and into media hieroglyphics. His longer “Stream of Consciousness” pieces came out of what, 30 years ago he called the ‘Bar Tapes.’ The Bar tapes were towering stacks of his VHS tapes that played silently 24/7, at Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn, NY. In 2002 they were retitled ‘TV Dreams’ and digitalized. Since 1982 the work, originally created with VCRs and now with Digital software, has ceaselessly continued. Each video has a unique audio, usually sourced from origins independent of the image sources, and is developed in the creative process simultaneously with the imagery. However in Freddy’s, the pieces play without their audio, and are accompanied by the Bar’s random music, always creating unrepeatable, uncannily syncopated fortuitous connections between sight and sound. Mr. O’Finn created, managed and is now co-owner and video artist in residence of “Freddy’s Bar“. 

Donald O’Finn’s art consists of videos ranging in length from seconds to hours, from single source origins to countless. They are monstrously expressive, often dense montages. The repurposed material is spun and recontextualized into very personal narratives, into cultural autopsies, into commercial archeology, and into media hieroglyphics. His longer “Stream of Consciousness” pieces came out of what, 30 years ago he called the ‘Bar Tapes.’ The Bar tapes were towering stacks of his VHS tapes that played silently 24/7, at Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn, NY. In 2002 they were retitled ‘TV Dreams’ and digitalized. Since 1982 the work, originally created with VCRs and now with Digital software, has ceaselessly continued. Each video has a unique audio, usually sourced from origins independent of the image sources, and is developed in the creative process simultaneously with the imagery. However in Freddy’s, the pieces play without their audio, and are accompanied by the Bar’s random music, always creating unrepeatable, uncannily syncopated fortuitous connections between sight and sound. Mr. O’Finn created, managed and is now co-owner and video artist in residence of “Freddy’s Bar“.