Information Withheld

Juan Downey

1983, 28:27 min, color, sound

The second part of The Thinking Eye series, Information Withheld is a complex investigation of signs and symbols in Western culture. Applying linguistic, semiotic and iconographic analysis as systems of interpretation, Downey decodes signs from everyday traffic signals to Michelangelo's...

Plato Now

Juan Downey

1973, 30 min, b&w, sound

Taking as a starting point images from the video performance of the same name at the Everson Museum of Art, Downey created a single-channel version of the piece that also includes images from Three Way Communication by Light, along with others recorded in his Tribeca studio in 1973. The result is...

The Laughing Alligator

Juan Downey

1979, 27 min, b&w and color, sound

Merging the subjective and the objective, the autobiographical and the anthropological, The Laughing Alligator is a highly personal observation of an indigenous South American culture. Recorded while he and his family were living among the Yanomami of Venezuela, this compelling work distills...