Diamond Mind

A chronicle of the lives and testimonies of men living on New York’s Bowery. One of the earliest documentary style "street tapes" created with Sony's Portapak.

Four color studio cameras pointed at different angles on Levine's face switch back and forth in rapid succession, creating a kaleidoscopic effect on the screen while he directs the viewer to think about various activities.

This video performance represents Les Levine singing and dancing to the popular tunes of his adolescence. At the start of each song, the artist places a certain quantity of colored pigments onto the surface of a sheet of paper that serves as a dance floor. The camera, focused on the movement of his feet, observes the modifications of the paint “as it happens”, coinciding these with each musical segment derived from his personal hit parade, in autobiographical fragments.

This film documents the major directions in modern American art during the first seven years of the 1960s. The keynote is that the artist has expanded his realm from the two-dimentional picture frame, climaxed by the artists of the 40s and early 50s, merged color with sculpture, and sought out modern media to express himself. This has produced the characteristic wide spectrum of interest, ideas, and products in contemporary art.

A trembling stroll in the city, covered by the rumbling of the street and the repetitive monologue of Les Levine hidden behind his dark glasses “I am an artist, I am not concerned by what you're doing” he repeats to those that call to him, or pass him, suspiciously or indifferently – all the passersby of a working-class neighborhood in New York.