Now Available: Ten Videos by Azian Nurudin
Posted May 19th, 2026 in Announcements, New Acquisitions, New Digital Files, News / Events
Canyon Cinema is pleased to announce the acquisition of ten videos by the Bay Area-based Malaysian-American artist Azian Nurudin.
Made between 1986 and 2001, these videos “feature leather and whips in the streets and S&M havens in the sheets. While Azian’s contemporaries from a ‘brat pack’ of insurgent women artists like Cecilia Dougherty and Leslie Singer quickly achieved attention, the expanse of Nurudin’s work has never been fully exhibited or appreciated.
“Ignited by unabashed, defiant queer passion, Azian renders her politics and sexuality through murky pixels and radical propositions for self-defence.” — Pixelated Lesbian Mixtape: Azian Nurudin’s Wicked Times (1986-1999), Queer East Festival 2026 (London, UK)
Malaysian Series 1-6 (1986-1987, 22 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
The video maker dressed in a black leather jacket and print sarong whips and beats various appliances and products. In this punk assault on the senses with the unsettling visuals and music displace the viewer in the netherworld of 2 cultures, East and West.
Without Make-Up You Haven’t Got A Prayer (1988, 4 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
An erotic venture near the railroad tracks.
The Headhunters of Borneo – A Recollection (1988, 11 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
Reflecting on the colonial erasure of Dayak headhunting practices and reinventing the headhunter as the new immigrant female in Western society.
Self-Immolation As An Anachronism (1988, 3 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
Across many cultures and religions, barbaric rituals like cliterodectomy and bride burning are done in the name of religion or cultural tradition. Using dolls as props, the artist has stylized a few of these depictions with the question as to why these are still in existence.
Nancy’s Nightmare (1988, 5 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
A stylized depiction of lesbian S&M, with the audio (two versions of “These Boots Are Made for Walking” – the original with Nancy Sinatra and Megadeth’s version “These Boots”) providing underpinnings of humour to the shenanigans.
Automobile Clean-Up Expediency Part 1 (1988, 7 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
The artist wants to set a car on fire in a vacant lot. To do so, she makes calls to various agencies requesting information leading to various comical calls.
What Do Pop Art, Pop Music, Pornography and Politics Have To Do With Real Life? (1990, 19 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
Race, gender, sexuality, popular culture assaulted on all fronts. “Andy Warholl” interviews a few well known celebrities — “Cicciolina (Ilona Staller),” “Jeff Koons,” “Whitney Houston,” and an art dealer in a parody of popular culture.
Bitter Strength: Sadistic Response Version (1992, 2.5 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
A response to those who think S/M is part of violence against women. Set against the backdrop of pixelated PXL2000 S/M imagery and industrial soundscape, a spoken word voice-over exhorts women to resist their assailants, and at the same time a certain eroticism is prevalent in the imagery.
A Gun Is Useless in A Dead Girl’s Hands (1999, 3 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
Exhorting women to learn how to shoot guns for self defense and if so inclined, “join the lesbian militia.”
Binky “Doomsday Loser” (2001, 4.5 minutes, color, sound, digital file)
Music video of Binky band
