In 1972, Robert Morris and Lynda Benglis agreed to exchange videos in order to develop a dialogue between each other's work. Mumble brings together repeated scenes and gestures, featuring Morris and Benglis's brother Jim, and a narrative of irrelevant, confusing and often purposefully untrue statements. As Benglis's narration degenerates into a meaningless, repetitive pulse, Mumble disrupts the convenient fiction that the image presented on screen is complete on itself. Morris's tape, Exchange, is a response to Benglis's Mumble. At the beginning of the tape, Morris comments on the nature of the collaboration, their interaction, and what they represent to each other. An asymmetry of elements forms as the tape moves from the professional towards the personal - a shift that gives the work humanity and, in relation to the development of early Conceptual video, its unique historical importance.
