Unlike earlier works the artist is not a performer in "Scenes and Commercials." Instead, the action is the family drama that unfolds at a Beach Boys rehearsal session. The soundtrack, a tape recording of the Wilson Brothers trying to cut the single "Help Me Rhonda" under the overbearing scrutiny of father Murray, tells the story of the struggle to achieve the illusion of carefree, American fun. The visual component of the tape, a neon canopy of a service station in Knoxville, Tennessee, reads like a broken pediment in Donegan's archeology of classical pop forms.
This title is available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI's 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.