STARTS OWN LABEL : THE PIONEER OF VIDEO ART DISTRIBUTION

Many video artists are drawn to the medium by the prospect of connecting with a broader audience than regular museum and gallery patrons. But how do these artists go about distributing and marketing their work?

That’s where Richard Kennedy says his business, Modern Visual Communications, enters the picture. Kennedy, 41, formed the company in 1985 to help extend the appeal of the medium beyond the faithful few die-hards who regularly attend video art events.

“I originally intended to start making video art myself but if I did, there would just be another 20 hours of video and so what?” said the stylishly garbed Kennedy in his Beverly Hills home. “My premise was that I wanted to create a market for work, not work for a market.”

Kennedy has organized MVC like a record label with more than 30 artists under contract who will receive royalty payments on sales of their tapes. The company has already released one series called “Music for Your Eyes,” which features works by Jules Engel, Michael Scroggins, David Stout, Marsha Mann & Radames Para, and Bob Campbell.

A second release of four or five tapes is scheduled this fall. The tapes generally contain 15-25 minutes of material and sell for $19.95 or $29.95.

The artists involved are firmly behind MVC’s founder. “Richard,” said Stout, “really reminds me of the old image of the guy with a few records under his arm driving around the country giving them to every radio station.”

Added Mann: “The exciting thing about MVC as a label is they’re trying to go directly from artist to audience and bypass the whole commercial intervention system.”

The response to Kennedy, who was a clothes designer in New York before moving here in late 1979, wasn’t always that positive. Many video artists were extremely leery of someone from the New York fashion world arriving on the local scene with big ideas, glib lines and chutzpah to burn.

“I spent from ’80 to ‘83, studying the scene,” Kennedy said. “I came in saying, ‘I’m Richard Kennedy from New York and I’m going to do something: open a video gallery.’ People were looking at me like, ‘Hey, rip-off. This guy must be some hustler.’

“It was the weirdest thing for me because, as a designer for 10 years, I had an existence and an identity: Richard Kennedy, designer. I was changing careers and walking in cold into this world that wasn’t so open and all of a sudden I was insecure. That, for me personally, was difficult because I had no ego.”

Born and reared in Boston, Kennedy performed in, and later managed, rock bands during the ‘60s and also took a stab at stand-up comedy. He found a niche working at a downtown Boston clothing store that catered to a flashy street crowd and specialized in band uniforms for rock and soul groups.

He moved to New York in 1969, where his fashion designs caught on during the hippie boutique boom.

“We were just making things, a pure kind of hippie thing, and it grew into a business. We were shipping 10,000 to 15,000 garments a week and I had no idea what I was doing.”

With the closure of many boutiques, Kennedy’s company foundered in 1974, but he rebounded with a more upscale store catering to jet-set celebrities in mid-town Manhattan. According to Kennedy, he tired of catering to his clients’ egos and moved to Los Angeles to begin his video art venture.

The turning point came three years ago when he opened MVC as a “video boutique” on Melrose Avenue. The venture lasted six months, but established his credibility with many video artists.

Now, he has to build a viable distribution network for MVC releases. The company’s tapes are available at video stores like Nickelodeon, Parachute and the Video Center.

Ultimately, Kennedy hopes to establish a flexible operation where more accessible works can be sold in mainstream outlets like Tower Records while other tapes will only be available in gallery or museum shops. He stressed the importance of creating display sections for fine art videos in the retail outlets that do stock MVC tapes.

“It’s a way to make it easy for people to separate MVC from the expectation they have when they walk in the video store,” he said. “It’s the same vehicle but they have to realize that the video, the television monitor, is a medium and can be used for different purposes.”

Kennedy is banking that boundary-blurring performers like David Byrne, Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel are creating a new art audience that will be receptive to MVC artists. He foresees a day when a single tape may sell 40,000 copies. For now, the bottom line is whether MVC can muster enough sales to stay afloat and recoup Kennedy’s six-figure initial investment.

“I’ve had no income for two years,” he said. “All I’ve done is lose money--mine and (that of) anybody else I borrowed from--but I think it’s gonna be OK in the long run. Pioneering is pioneering and I’ve always been a pioneer.”