Trick or drink

Trick or drink is an autobiographical tape about growing up with alcoholics. It starts with images from the artist’s junior high school diary, and seems to be a humorous take on a young girl’s anxieties about her changing body. But gradually the narration takes on obsessive tone and the viewer realizes the girl’s worries about overeating are a symptom of her growing discomfort with her parent’s alcohol abuse. Although based on personal memories—family anecdotes and snapshots—the tape also includes concrete information about adult children of alcoholics. “Trick or drink” is an autobiographical masterpiece which announces Vanalyne Green’s distinctive new voice in video. In it, the artist recreates a world of teenage anxiety through an evocative collage of 1950’s textbook illustrations, child-like crayon drawings and photographs. An act of exorcism and a recuperation through art, Trick or drink stings one into awareness of what it means to survive as a daugther of alcoholic parent. “—Dierdre Boyle, Author of Video Classics.