A videotape of a bloody-faced woman wearing a Viking helmet and carrying around a giant piece of foam Swiss cheese may seem like an odd choice to categorize as a work of art. But Harry Dodge and Stanya Kanh’s piece captures the crude, gritty, symbolic, fantastically quirky and somewhat funny spirit of their work. The previously describe Viking woman (portrayed by Ms. Kahn herself) is the subject of Dodge and Kahn’s video piece “Can’t Swallow It, Can’t Spit It Out.”

The video piece was screened back in 2006 by the Elizabeth Dee Gallery and later included in an exhibition (”Eden’s Edge”) at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as well as tapped for the Whitney Museum Biennial.

Ms. Dodge and Ms. Kahn first met in San Francisco in 1993 where they were part of a burgeoning performance art scene. They began working together — Kahn is usually in front of the camera while Dodge is the behind — in Los Angeles where they created their first short titled “Winner” back in 2001. Dodge and Kahn’s roots in performance art are apparent in their video art as characterized by the improvised dialogue and movement in their pieces.

Their latest work “All Together Now” (26 minutes and 34 secs) is a bit different in the sense that the character’s identities are not clear — they wear blue and white hoods. These hoods prevent dialogue — the improvised quality that has garnered them much success.

“All Together Now” is currently in display at the Elizabeth Dee Gallery till August 2, 2008. More info here.