At the beginning of the lesson in which we started researching video artists we received the brief for the video installation unit as well. The lesson was mainly spent however learning about different video artists and also beginning to research them. Below is a picture of the spider diagram we did about the video artists Marissa has told us to research, 2 of the video artists must be off of the spider diagram/PowerPoint Marissa showed us (1 male and 1 female) and 1 can be any video artist that we wish to research. Also below is the information from the PowerPoint that she showed us and the research that I have conducted on video artists.
Video Installation- Video Artists (PowerPoint)
Video Installation
Video installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience.
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data.
Video Art
One of the main strategies used by video-installation artists in the incorporation of the space as a key element in the narrative structure.
Video art can take many forms: recordings that are broadcast, viewed in galleries or other venues, or distributed sculptural installations, which may incorporate one or more TV sets or video monitors, displaying 'live' or recorded images and sound; and performances in which video representations are included.
One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema.
Video art may not employ the use of actors, may contain no dialogue, may have no discernible narrative or plot.
Bill Viola
His art deals largely with the central themes of human consciousness and experience.
Birth, death, love, emotion and a kind of humanist spirituality.
An ongoing theme that he constantly explores in dualism, the idea that you can't understand what you're looking at unless you know its opposite.
For example, a lot of his work has themes such as life and death, light and dark, stressed and calm, loud and quiet etc.
Nam June Paik
Pioneer of video installation was Korean/American Nam June Paik.
His work from the mid-sixties used multiple television monitors in sculptural arrangements.
Paik went on to work with video walls and projectors to create large immersive environments.
Sam Taylor-Wood
In 1994, she exhibited a multi-screen video work titled Killing Time, in which four people mimed to an opera score.
From that point multi-screen video works became the main focus of Taylor-Wood's work.
Taylor-Wood was nominated for the annual Turner Prize in 1998 but lost out to the painter Chris Ofili. She won the Illy Café Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the 1997 Venice Bienielle.
Shirin Neshat
Her work refers to the social, cultural and religious codes of Muslim socities and the complexity of certain oppositions, such as man and woman.
Neshat often emphasizes this theme showing two or more coordinated films concurrently, creating stark visual contrasts through motifs such as light and dark, black and white, male and female.
Neshat has also made more traditional narrative short films, such as Zarin.
The work of Neshat addresses the social, political and psychological dimensions of women's experience in contemporary Islamic societies.
David Hall
His work in video and his writings in studio international and elsewhere contributed to the establishment of this as a genre in the visual arts, and it was here he introduced the term "time-based media".
He was the curator of early shows, and influenced emerging artists as a teacher.
Peter Campus (often styled as peter campus)
He achieved rapid acclaim in the 1970s for a series of video works that explored issues such as identity construction, perception and subversion of the relationship that exists between the viewer and the work.
In this early period of his career his works consisted of only single-channel videos and interactive closed-circuit television installations. Only later, in the 1980s did he decide to take up traditional still photography in place of single-channel videos, interactive closed-circuit television installations and also large scale projection and an investigation of faces and heads as a subject matter work too which he did towards the end of the 1970s.
Some of his most popular video art/installations include Three Transitions, Third Tape and Double Vision.
Single and Multi-Screened
Although it continues to be produced, it is represented by two varieties: single-channel and installation.
Single-channel works are much closer to the conventional idea of television: a video is screened, projected or shown as a single image.
Installation works involve either an environment, several distinct pieces of video presented separately, or any combination of video with traditional media such as sculpture. Installation video is the most common form of video art today.
Sight and Sound
Sound
Music
Verbal Language
Natural
Artificial Noise
Sight
Editing can be used to develop narrative or produce a visual rhythm light is a medium that can project a third dimension- a light sculpture image, graphics and text can interact to create a multitude of meanings.
Inclusion and exclusion- whatever is included or excluded can have significance.
Video Artists
Many of the early prominent video artists were those involved with concurrent movements in conceptual art, performance and experimental film.
These include Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Peter Campus, Doris Totten Chase, Norman Cowie, Dan Graham, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Shigeko Kubota, Martha Rosler, William Wegman, Gary Hill and many others.
The 3 Video Artists
Bill Viola
Tristan's Ascension (2005)- Water rising up from the ground representing him being re-birthed (rising up again). More water is added as it goes on and the man begins to sit up and then floats up like the water does and also eventually disappears just like the man does (going upwards). Tristan's Ascension is linked to Fire Woman through Dualism of life and death so the man is obviously going through the process of birth via the visual of him rising up with and through the water. The use of sound is diegetic and it is the sound of water rising up into the sky, gradually getting louder and louder.
The Raft (2004)- A group of people are standing together, to similar to how they would on public transport, and are completely drenched by water that hits them as a really big wave completely takes down everyone who was standing up to the floor. Then, there is the visual of the group of people who are now unrecognizable and more or less faceless trying to escape the never ending attack from the water. However, when the water eventually stops the faces become more recognizable and everyone is distraught and shocked, hugging each other because they are still alive. It could also represent the way a tragic event in anyone's life can have a serious effect on them no matter who they are and what their life is like or how privileged they. It will still affect them in the same way it would a less privileged person.
Another thing that it could possibly mean is that no matter your background death is inevitable (in the form of the wave in this case) and it will affect everyone at some point in their life and when it does affect them it affects them badly and leaves them feeling terrible as if they've been hit with a wave and drowned emotionally. The sound in the video art is diegetic and it is the sound of the wave crashing into the people on screen and wiping them out.
Fire Woman (2005)- A raging fire is occurring behind a woman as she stands there with her arms by her side, the blazing flames behind her not phasing her at all. It also looks as if she is falling towards you and towards the screen as you watch it and she eventually does actually fall towards you and into the water too. Once the woman falls into the water it begins to rise up higher on the screen and and submerge the fire more and more as the video installation carries on until it gets to the point where the fire appears to be completely submerged and there is no bright orange flame visible. It ends with the flame continuing to burn behind the water but it is not visible and what is on the screen is a quite beautiful and cinematic pattern that is moving because of the flame that is blocking out but has also become a completely different thing because of the way it has engulfed the flame. I feel like the video installation could represent the idea that death in some cases can be a form solace from a life that is hell and is essentially horrible to live so death in a scenario like that would be a positive rather than a negative or at the very least seem like it would be. Fire Woman is linked to Tristan's Ascension through the Dualism of life and death. The sound in the video art is diegetic and it is the sound of the fire behind the woman burning and the sound of the water drowning out the fire but you can still hear it in the background of the water that has taken up the whole of the screen and the majority of the audio.
Sam Taylor-Wood/Johnson
The Servant (2007)- A man outside about to light his cigarette who is in front of house, that has a woman in the window of it, who the man has presumably just said goodbye to. The house seems to be quite an older house as well because of the height and design of the windows and the design of the doors too. The fact that the house is older may suggest that the owner of the house is at least reasonably rich and can possibly afford a maid, butler, cleaner etc. or in other words a "Servant". It could also however, be referring to the type of relationship that the man has with the woman in window. She could be his wife that he treats in a very degrading and demeaning way which isn't that unlikely considering the man looks quite old, maybe in his seventies, and the woman in the window looks a bit younger so maybe he treats her horribly similar to how men more commonly did when he was younger compared to nowadays as it was normalized to him when he was a child. He may also just be a mean-spirited and horrible person whereas because she's a bit younger or at least looks like it, she knows that the way he treats her isn't right and she just wants to break free from him and the life she's living as "The Servant" to him and his needs. It contains no sound as it is is a piece of art and not a piece of video art/installations.
A Little Death (2002)- At the beginning of the video art the rabbit is hanging from two nails with its feet being nailed to the wall with them. The video itself is a time-lapse of a rabbit decomposing with a peach next to it not decomposing at all which creates a contrast between the rabbit and the peach visually and physically. The meaning behind having the rabbit decompose and speeding it up is to make people think about and question mortality and the sudden nature of death itself. However, there is a point in the video where the rabbit comes back to life because as oxygen temporarily re-enters its body only for it to leave its body only seconds later in the video. It is also said that Taylor-Wood/Johnson was disturbed by the fact that as the rabbit decayed and laid there in a disgusting pile of its own remains the peach sat there not even slightly decomposing which she believed was as a result of it being genetically modified. I feel like although it is uncomfortable and a bit repulsive to watch A Little Death does a great job at showcasing what death really is at its core, a process that no matter how it happens is permanent and ends in an organism being completely gone forever and turning into absolutely nothing but a pile of bones that will represent a life that once was. The sound used is non-diegetic and the music is very unsettling but also melancholic.
http://groupdecompositionproject.blogspot.com/2015/01/sam-taylor-wood-still-life-little-death.html
Still Life (2001)- Reminiscent of the previous video art A Little Death in concept but different in meaning, Still Life commences with a display of fruit with a blue pen sitting beside it. We are aware of what the video art piece truly concerns sooner rather than later as the fruit begins to shrivel up a little bit and fuzz starts to gather on and around the fruit as the process of decomposition happens to the fruit in a time-lapsed video. Although Still Life is similar to A Little Death, which she actually created after this video art as she created this one in 2001 and she created A Little Death in 2002, what separates them is how the decomposition of the rabbit in A Little Death is disgusting and sickening to watch whereas the decomposition of the fruit in Still Life is much more mesmerizing and a lot nicer than the rotting corpse of a rabbit which I believe is what this video art represents. It represents how although death is a perplexing and incomprehensible thing it is also simultaneously a beautiful and admirable thing too. Maybe we fear it so much because we mainly focus on its ugly side (A Little Death) and never on its prettier side (Still Life). However, the end of the video contradicts all of that as the fruit still decomposes into the black liquid type substance that the rabbit decayed into as well so maybe the real message of the video art is that no matter what form it is in, death is ugly. There is no sound in this video art or at least there wasn't in the version that I watched on YouTube.
http://groupdecompositionproject.blogspot.com/2015/01/sam-taylor-wood-still-life-little-death.html
Peter Campus
Three Transitions (1973)- Campus walks into the center of the frame, in a yellow suit in front of a yellow wall, and begins to cut a hole in his back which is actually the paper wall but because of how he is using two cameras that are facing opposite sides it looks like it is his back when it is actually the wall. That is because with his back to one camera, he cuts through paper so therefore in the double image it looks as if he is cutting through his back and poking his head through his chest which looks quite bizarre but it is also visually very interesting and unique. The next part of the video art incorporates the use of chroma-key technology by superimposing one video image onto a similarly coloured area of another image so in this case of this video art Campus paints his face with blue paint and during the process another image of himself is revealed. In the final part of the video Campus superimposes himself onto a blue piece of paper, which he sets alight. I feel like there isn't a message behind Three Transitions but the purpose of it is to experiment with new technology and to try and innovate with new methods and techniques in video art. The only sound in the video art is the sound from the audio from the camera fuzzing and the sound from the coloured filters being changed as well.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/88833
R-G-B (1974)- Campus in this video art uses a small screen placed next to him and places coloured filters (Red Green Blue/RGB, the colours of video) against the surface of the screen. This therefore gave him the ability to create different variations with the three different colours as well as with the opacity and transparency too. He also experiments with the variations of the coloured filters, opacity and transparency by changing the type of shots he is using to film himself and the way he is positioned in the shots in order to test the different effects that it has on the shot. The different shots that Campus alters the coloured filters, opacity and transparency on includes a close-up of him changing the coloured filter from red to green to blue all in quite a natural way acting as if he isn't even filming, it then cuts to a medium close-up of him changing the colour of the background and the colour of his two shadows at the same time as well due to him changing the coloured filters and the lights that shine on him which show the shadows that they do. Then, in the next part the shot is an over the shoulder shot and it has him changing the coloured filters once and multiplied on a television because the camera he is filming himself with is broadcasting to the television in front of him which is probably so that Campus can make sure what he's trying to do is working but it creates a really unique effect in my opinion. To finish the video art, the final shot is a wide shot of Campus standing in the same spot as his coloured silhouette changes colour smoothly and in conjunction with each other at some points. I feel like there wasn't any message behind this video art and it was simply made to experiment with the new technology that was coloured filters and inspire others to innovate with the same technology as well as technology alike. The sound in this is the sound of the camera fuzzing and
https://mubi.com/films/r-g-b
How does this research relate to my work?
The techniques and processes used to develop Three Transitions and R-G-B are ones that I am going to include in creation of my video installation. For example, I am going to incorporate the use of chroma-keying technology in my video installation and the part in Three Transitions that shows him painting his face with blue paint I am taking inspiration from that and paint parts of what will most likely be my body in blue or green paint, because I am definitely willing to do it more than anyone else would be. That is because painting yourself is quite a long process and the paint will need be washed off and I'm not sure how many people would want to do that so I will be starring in my video installation most likely. What I took from R-G-B in terms of techniques and processes was the use of a variety of different colours and the way in which in each shot he was a different distance away from the camera as I am going to include a lot of variation of colour in the patterns that I fill the green/blue clothes/material/paint/screen with and I am going to have the subject doing the everyday tasks/actions at different distances from the camera similar to how Campus did in R-G-B in order to develop my video installation.
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