Mouth Piece, 1978
Video (color, sound); 1:00 min.
Dave Jones prototype modules (keyers, color field generators, output amplifier), black-and-white camera, microphone and Serge audio modules (voltage controlled oscillators, filters, sequencer)
In the minute-long 1978 video Mouth Piece, there are two planes of image: in the background is the lower half of a face (the artist’s) with mouth at the center; in the foreground is a graphic depiction of red, electronically generated lips that move as a transparent motion picture against a violet background. The actual mouth manneristically blows a loud kiss as the red lips move precisely in front of it, and after repeating it four times vibrates the lips (blowing-sputtering, sounding like a child) and then sticks the tongue out with a loud throaty “Ahhh.” This primitive articulation takes language down to the physical bottom line, like the sound of the word Dada that’s baby talk. And it creates an interface between physical and electronic linguistic acts––a simple, even ridiculous version of the threshold between person and electronic art. The title spelt as two words is axial, suggesting “a piece about the mouth” and at same time “mouthpiece”; the latter seems light-heartedly to pick up on the etymology of persona as the sounding through the mouthpiece of the mask in ancient Greek drama.
Excerpted from the Prologue of George Quasha and Charles Stein's An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009.
Solo exhibition. Center for Media Art, The American Center, Paris, France, December 13 – 15, 1983.
Solo exhibition. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, May 24 – June 15, 1986.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, November 16 – 21, 1987.
Solo screening. Espace lyonnais d’art contemporain (ELAC), Lyon, France, July 26 and September 27, 1988.
Solo exhibition. Musée d’art moderne, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, January 19 – February 19, 1989.
Vidéoformes 89: Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France, April 20 – 29, 1989.
Solo exhibition. “OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES,” Video Galleriet, Huset, Denmark and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 20 – May 13, 1990.
“Gary Hill: In Light of the Other,” Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, November 7, 1993 – January 9, 1994; The Tate Gallery, Liverpool, England, February 25 – May 2, 1994.
ForumBHZvideo, Festival Internacional de Video, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, November 10 – 15, 1993.
“Gary Hill: Sites Recited,” Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, December 3, 1993 – February 20, 1994.
“Gary Hill,” (travelling exhibition organized by Riksutställningar, Stockholm, Sweden) Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna, Stockholm, Sweden, February 4 – April 17, 1995; Museet for samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway, April 26 - May 21, 1995; Helsingin Taidehalli, Helsinki, Finland, June 29 - July 30, 1995; Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, September 3 - October 15, 1995, Jönköpings läns museum, Jönköping, Sweden, October 22 - November 15, 1995; Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg, Sweden, November 15, 1995 - January 14, 1996.
Sedicesima Biennale Internazionale del Bronzetto Piccola Scultura Padova, Padua, Italy, October 29, 1995 – January 28, 1996.
“Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place,” Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 1 – 6, 1997 (not the full run of the exhibition); Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, October 3 – November 2, 1997.
“Voices,” Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 4 – August 23, 1998. Travelled to: Fundació Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain, September 17 – November 1, 1998; Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing, France, February 28 – April 11, 1999.
Solo exhibition. Center for Contemporary Images, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, September 9, 10, 1998.
Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark, January 17 – April 5, 1999.
“Gary Hill: Video Works,” NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, Japan, February 16 – March 31, 1999.
“Rewind to the Future,” Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany, December 1, 1999 – February 13, 2000.
Solo exhibition. Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 17 – June 4, 2000 (May 25, 2000 screening).
Solo exhibition. Museo Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina, July 7 – 30, 2000 (July 8, 2000 screening).
"Hill(scape),” Extra Microwave Media Art Festival (organized by Videotage), Hong Kong Space Museum Lecture Hall, Hong Kong, January 14 – 31, 2001 (January 19 screening).
“Gary Hill: Selected Works 1976 – 2003,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2 – August 24, 2003.
“Videographies – The Early Decades,” EMST (The National Museum of Contemporary Art), Athens, Greece, July 13 – December 31, 2005.
“Short Shorts,” Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York, NY, August 11, 2010.
Seoul International NewMedia Festival, Seoul, Korea, August 4 – 14, 2011.
Oeuvres vidéo de Gary Hill en sa présence. Center for Media Art. Program notes. Paris: American Center, 1983, unpaginated.
Furlong, Lucinda. "A Manner of Speaking: An Interview with Gary Hill." Afterimage 10, 8 (March 1983), p. 11.
Hanhardt, John G. Gary Hill. The New American Filmmakers Series 30. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986, unpaginated.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo. Geneva: Saint-Gervais Genève, 1987, p. 126.
Vidéoformes '89: Festival de la Création Vidéo. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Festival de la Création Vidéo, 1989, p. 12.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 24, 25.
Gary Hill: Sites Recited. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1993, p. 25.
ForumBHZvideo 1993. Festival Internacional de Vídeo: Limite. Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Festival Internacional de Video, 1993, p. 48.
Willis, Holly, ed. Gary Hill. Spinning the Spur of the Moment. Irvington, New York: The Voyager Company, 1994, p. 15.
Gary Hill: Tall Ships, Clover. Stockholm: Riksutställningar, 1995, pp. 14, 48, 57.
Vischer, Theodora, ed. Gary Hill: Imagining the Brain Closer than the Eyes. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 116. (In German: Gary Hill: Arbeit am Video. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 121.)
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, pp. 69, 70.
Phillips, Christopher. Voices = Voces = Voix. Rotterdam: Center for Contemporary Art; Barcelona: Fundació Joan Miró; and Tourcoing: Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporain, 1998, pp. 20, 44.
Gary Hill: Video Works. Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication Center, 1999, pp. 19, 20.
Kold, Anders, ed. Gary Hill. Aarhus: Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 1999, p. 114.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 69, 188.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 8, 42.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 21, 73.
Hill (scape): Gary Hill’s video screening, performance and installation exhibition. Program notes. Hong Kong: Videotage, 2001, p. 4.
Lageira, Jacinto. Des premiers mots aux derniers silences in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 10, 11.
Sans Commune Mesure: Image et texte dans l’art actuel. (Paris: Éditions Léo Scheer, 2002), pp. 43, 60.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 17, 18, 71, 72.
Video Acts: Single Channel Works from the Collections of Pamela and Richard Kramlich and New Art Trust. Long Island City: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 2003, pp. 173.
Barro, David. Gary Hill: Poeta da percepção, poet of perception, poeta de la percepción. In Portuguese, Spanish and English. Porto: Mimesis, 2003, pp. 11, 32, 54.
Unfolding Vision: Gary Hill, Selected Works 1976 – 2003. Taipei: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2003, pp. 86 – 87.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 24, 44, 586.