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Donald O'Finn

Donald O'Finn (born 3/21 1957) is a Brooklyn video artist who works with re-purposed found footage.

[<Donald O’Finn’s chilling black and white video seems to take the subject of weapons more seriously. It shows images of a child in cowboy attire firing his toy pistol at an old Indian chief. The images are apparently taken from old television series or commercials. Although innocent for the child, his play takes on ominous overtones when juxtaposed with popular images of real guns cocking and firing. The video’s playful pop veneer sets off its serious comment on the conditioning effects of publicly condoned violence.>]http://www.brooklynrail.org/2003/04/artseen/up-in-arms

Donald O’Finn’s video projections: compilations of strange and wonderful found footage, weaved and strained through his psyche into painterly narratives, and poetic loops. http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?id=24625

If you happen to wander into a cozy bar in Prospect Heights called Freddie’s, one of the first things you’ll notice are the small screens along the wall displaying a series of bizarre images. Even if you venture into the adjacent music area, you’re still greeted by these extended video collages. By then, you’ve found the work of Donald O’Finn. His “bar tapes” can run for two hours—culled from obscure horror and sci-fi movies, commercials, and found footage; snatched with VCRs and Tivo; and processed through video switchers and effects mixers. In raw form, this hilarious, psychedelic mix of consumer culture and lo-fi kitsch appear on his TV Dreams cable show, while some of the material is also honed down to a few minutes for his “art pieces,” which have found their way into Anthology Film Archives, Galapagos Art Space, and D.C.’s Hirschon Museum of Art.http://www.villagevoice.com/bestof/2008/award/best-video-artist-based-in-a-bar-690730/

Donald O'Finn Manager, Freddy's Bar & Backroom O'Finn runs the show at Freddy's Bar and Backroom, which usually attracts an eclectic crowd. Even though the bar, which is a favorite to artists and writers, has been around for more than 70 years, O'Finn isn't optimistic he will be able to resist the push to level his place to make way for the proposed development. "I busted my butt to get this place to a level where it's at now," O'Finn says. "We had no money to advertise and no money to pay bands, but we're a happening place. We have eight or nine years left on our lease, but now some bulldozer is going to come destruct everything we worked for. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1763352

In Prospect Heights, Freddy's (485 Dean Street) lies, according to manager Donald O'Finn, "in the footprint" of Bruce Ratner's megalomaniac development. Eight or so years ago this Prohibition-era cop bar was charmingly reborn and redecorated by O'Finn and friends with a mass of thrift-store tchotchkes, books stuck into built-in shelves, and televisions screening O'Finn's videos (reformatted old film and TV clips). In addition to sponsoring its own in-house literary magazine and providing a space for community activist groups like Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, Freddy's hosts some of the city's most original readings and performances: Sing and Win a Ham, and the much praised Cringe Reading Night of teenage diary excerpts. What will become of this place once Ratner's fantasy is fully realized? "Last I heard, we were destined to become an escalator," says O'Finn. "Which is kind of ironic." http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-01-30/nyc-life/old-bars-meet-luxe-condos/