Imitations of Life

Mike Hoolboom is equal to fellow Canadian Peter Mettler in the depth and range of his poetic, personal and philosophical, mixed-media enquiries. An ambient assembly of diverse footage, from ads to classic clips, home movies to video diaries, Imitations explores the compulsion to document reality and the fissure between image and experience. Following the early childhood of his nephew Jack (from 1993 on), Hoolboom embarks on a profound, elegiac but often wryly humorous examination of the role of representation in the contemporary mindset. The presiding tone might be Marker-esque, but the voice is Hoolboom's own, melancholy, moving and committed. It all adds up to a poetic, persuasive evaluation of the disquieting new world we are making, and the attendant disappearances along that road.