Omer Fast, Still from "Nostalgia 3"

On view until the middle of February, Omer Fast has videos on view at both the Whitney and at Postmasters Gallery in Chelsea. A name that should be familiar to my regular readers, Omer Fast’s work befuddles me yet somehow I am transfixed. I stayed for the whole 32 minutes and 48 seconds of “Nostalgia 3″ (2009). A narrative definitely exists in this piece, yet there is no resolution to the story, there is no real plot, and as all his films are in a loop, there is no beginning or end. “Nostalgia,” the video installation at the Whitney includes three separate stories in three different areas on multiple screens that all deal with immigration. The three videos are different takes on a personal story related to Fast by a West African refugee in London–but what message Fast is trying to convey is unclear. As one curator writes, “he is concerned with aesthetic and narrative pleasure while resisting catharsis or pathos by refusing to resolve in any conventional, linear way.” Perhaps that is why I stayed; I wanted to be the one to figure out what the video was trying to impart to the viewer, but I also was sucked in by the beauty of his craft. The lighting, colors, and dramatic silences and emotional expressions of the actors are remarkable.

Omer Fast, Take a Deep Breath, 2008, production still. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery

The two works on view at Postmasters were not as interesting to me as “Nostalgia,” yet while I say that, I stayed an hour and a half to watch both videos in full. “Take a Deep Breath” (2008) is shown on side by side screens and uses actors to re-enact a scene from a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.  A medic rushed in to find a man inside a falafel shop who had lost his legs and an arm in the event. After losing his patient, the medic realizes that the man he tried to save was, in fact, the suicide bomber. The events are interspersed with excerpts from a conversation with the medic. Yet, there is a Hollywood feel to the scene; there are moments of chaos and a real lack of clarity. Who are these actors and why are some of the trivialities investigated in depth? I left scratching my head and am honestly still digesting that one.

Omer Fast, Still from "De Grote Boodschap," 2007, Courtesy of Postmasters gallery

“De Grote Boodschap” (2007) includes pairs of people in different, yet linked scenarios all within the same apartment building in Belgium. While stories are definitely told and characters exist, nothing is explained in depth and one is left to connect the dots on his/her own as to what the work is about. What I like about Fast’s work is his ability to ask the viewer to use his/her mind. This is not mindless, aesthetically beautiful video being shot but carefully selected scenes and dialogue that challenge our notion of reality.