"Conspiracy of Lies speaks of the alienation of minorities, consumer culture, urban isolation and the fine balance between mental order and chaos. The tape begins with my voice recounting the story of the discovery of a series of diary entries and lists written by an anonymous author. When I found the texts, I assumed the author to be a white, gay man like myself. Through the use of twelve narrators of different race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, I attempted to destabilize my own subjectivity and challenge my pre-existing assumptions regarding difference. The tape begins and end with two texts written by myself. This, I hope, helps to render the boundary between myself and the anonymous author more fluid, thereby questioning the 'authority' of authorship."
Nelson Henricks
Credits
Technical information
Documentation
"Conspiracy was conceived in late 1990 or early 1991. Like Comédie, it came to me fully formed, in one lump. I remember someone asked me what I was working on one day, and I said, "Well, the tape will open like this…" and I described it from start to finish. I had the whole video in my head. Making it was like taking a dictation. I never once doubted or questioned what I had to do. As with many of my works, the soundtrack came first. It was produced for a radio show in Calgary. I did the shooting and the final video edit during a residency at the Banff Centre during the summer of 1991. Many of the images in Conspiracy came from the text : the Off Centre Eatery which is mentioned by the author, other locations were chosen in relation to the author’s goals (go to more movies, visit art galleries) or activities (I worked at an Italian restaurant). I added a few generic locations that fit with the notion of routine or the difficulty of negotiating social space, an idea that impregnates the found texts pretty heavily."
HOOLBOOM, Mike. "An interview with Nelson Henricks", Nelson Henricks,[http://www.nelsonhenricks.com/hoolboom.html] (Consulted on september 15th 2009)
