Omer Fast (born 1972, Jerusalem, Israel) is a contemporary video artist. He received his BFA from Tufts University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1995 and an MFA from Hunter College in 2000.[1] Fast uses his films to explore the various possibilities offered by cinematic medium. His piece The Casting (2007), produced by Commonwealth Projects, was featured in the 2008 Whitney Biennial.[2]
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The viewer walks into the screening room of the The Casting initially encountering two hanging projection screens. Each screen contains a different depiction of a narrative showing the characters acting while silent and remaining completely still. The projection screens are double sided and contain two additional images on the rear side where the viewer sees two men engaged in an interview. The two men are a young American Army sergeant and the artist in a dialog about the narrative. The artist states during the interview that he is interested only in memory and how memory gets mediated; he says the work he is trying to achieve has or should have no political slant. Although the work is politically ambiguous it shows the powerlessness of an American Army sergeant in the current Iraqi conflict and possibly the powerlessness of perceived American hegemonic power.
In 2002, Fast released CNN Concatenated, an 18-minute long single-channel video which uses CNN footage. The video is cut so that each word is spoken by a different newsperson. The pieces literally asks the viewers questions about media authenticity and give CNN a distinct voice.[3]
In October 2009, Fast’s exhibition "Nostalgia" opened at South London Gallery. The exhibition included Nostalgia, a three-part film installation that intermingles a man’s account of his struggle for asylum in Britain with a reenactment of his story as a 1970s science fiction movie in which he attempts to flee a dystopian Europe and relocate to a colony in Africa.[4]