Picture Story, 1979
Video (color, sound); 7:00 min.
Rutt/Etra video synthesizer, two black-and-white cameras, microphone, Dave Jones prototype modules (variable hard/soft edge keyer, color field generators, output amplifier), and felt tip pen
“A structural work (with humor) that uses indeterminacy to forge an abstract landscape upon which the ‘vision’ of an ox appears. A sequence of words—hierarchically ordered from the utilitarian (functions and processes of the tools being used to make the piece) to the more abstract and conceptual, ‘content,’ ‘concept,’ and ‘vision’—become the building blocks of a linguistic picture story.”
A yellow rectangle containing a single word appears against a blue background. The word field moves across the screen, varying in size, proportion and changing direction, until collapsing to either a vertical line, horizontal line, or point, at which time the picture becomes still. A hand enters the picture and traces the residual line or point with a marker seen electronically as red. More fields follow, in which words are sometimes mirrored vertically or horizontally. Slowly, a network of verticals and horizontals is built up, line by line. As each line is marked in, a voice is heard saying one word. Over the duration of the piece, a description of a linguistic detail is given. “Four letters in the alphabet possess a quality significantly different than the others. When upside down or backwards their character remains the same. The letters H, I, O and X remain the same. The letters are H, I, O, X or HI OX.” A primitive drawing of an ox appears in the landscape, and the voice continues, “Furthermore O and X may be turned ninety degrees in any direction and still contain their original meaning.” With this last sentence the ox image is rotated to a “dead” upside down position.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, p. 588.
"Everson Video Revue,” Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, September 1 – 30, 1979 and February 1 – March 2, 1980. Travelled to: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 5 – November 4, 1979; University Art Gallery, University of California, Berkeley, California, November 10 – January 5, 1979; La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California, February – March 1981.
Athens Video Festival, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, October 18 – 20, 1979.
Solo screening. Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, California, December 2, 1979.
“Video Viewpoints: Processual Video,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, February 26, 1980.
Solo exhibition. Media Study/Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, May 3 – 18, 1980.
Image Dissector Screening Series, University of California, Los Angeles, California, June 10, 1980.
"Gary Hill: Equal Time,” Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, March 28 – May 2, 1982.
"Text/Picture Notes,” Visual Studies Workshop Galleries, Rochester, New York, May 14 – August 6, 1982.
“Freie Video-Produktionen aus den USA,” Steirischer Herbst ‘82, Funkhaus Graz, Graz, Austria, November 6 – 10, 1982.
"Art Vidéo Rétrospectives et Perspectives,” Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi, Belgium, February 5 – March 27, 1983.
"The Electronic Gallery,” University Art Gallery, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, March 2 – March 25, 1983.
Solo screening. London Video Arts, London, England, December 8, 1983.
Solo screening. International Cultural Center, Antwerp, Belgium, December 9, 1983.
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.
Japan 87 – The First Video Television Festival: “Private Visions and Media Crossover,” Spiral, Tokyo, Japan, July 29 – August 11, 1987.
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.
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.
Solo exhibition. Dia Center for the Arts, New York, New York, May 11 – June 25, 1995.
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.
"Gary Hill: Rétrospective de ses premières oeuvres mono-bandes,” Cinéma Lux, Caen, Basse-Normandie, France, December 11, 1997.
Solo exhibition. Center for Contemporary Images, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, September 9, 10, 1998.
Solo exhibition. 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).
“l’écriture vidéophage – les bandes vidéo de Gary Hill,” La Compagnie, Marseille, France, May 1 – 31, 2001 (May 1 & 3 screenings).
“Gary Hill: Selected Works.” Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, November 10, 2001 – March 10, 2002. Travelled to: Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal, October 10, 2002 – January 12, 2003.
“The Pleasure of Language,” The Netherlands Media Art Institute, Montevideo/Time Based Arts, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 24 – September 28, 2002.
“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.
Seoul International NewMedia Festival, Seoul, Korea, August 4 – 14, 2011.
“SCHRIFTFILME: Schrift als Bild Bewegung (TYPEMOTION: Type as image in motion,” FACT, Karlsruhe, Germany and Liverpool, Great Britain, November 15, 2014 - February 8, 2015.
"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.
"Gary Hill: Continuous Happening," Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou, October 23 - December 8, 2024.
New Work in Abstract Video Imagery. Syracuse, New York: Everson Museum of Art, 1977, unpaginated.
Everson Video Revue. Syracuse, New York: Everson Museum of Art, 1979, unpaginated.
Jenkins, Bruce and John Minkowsky. Beau Fleuve. Buffalo, New York: Media Study/Buffalo, 1979, p. 29.
Hill, Gary. "Processual Video." Video Viewpoints. New York: Museum of Modern Art, February 1980, unpaginated.
Hill, Gary. "Exhibition: Gary Hill: Opening of War Zone – A Video Installation and Presentation of New Videotapes." Media Study/Buffalo (January/May 1980), p. 10.
The Electronic Gallery. Binghamton, New York: University Art Gallery, State University of New York, Binghamton, 1983, unpaginated.
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), pp. 11, 12.
Video: A Retrospective. 1974 – 1984. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1984, p. 74.
Hanhardt, John G. Gary Hill. The New American Filmmakers Series 30. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986, unpaginated.
Electrovisions: Japan 87 Video Television Festival. Tokyo: Video Gallery SCAN, 1987, p. 93.
2e Semaine International de Video. Geneva: Saint-Gervais Genève, 1987, pp. 63, 126.
De Moffarts, Eric. “Télévision: le dernier carré?: La 2ème Semaine Internationale de Vidéo à Genève.” Gen Lock 7 (December 1987), p. 11.
Vidéoformes '89: Festival de la Création Vidéo. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Festival de la Création Vidéo, 1989, p. 12.
Van Assche, Christine. Gary Hill. Paris: Editions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1992, p. 10.
Conomos, John. “Verbal executions on Gary Hill’s videography.” Photofile 35 (May 1992), p. 36.
Mignot, Dorine. Gary Hill. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum; Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 1993, p. 14. (Gary Hill, “Inter-view”)
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, p. 14. (Gary Hill, “Inter-view”)
Gary Hill: Sites Recited. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 19 – 23, 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.
Vischer, Theodora, ed. Gary Hill: Imagining the Brain Closer than the Eyes. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, pp. 116, 117. (In German: Gary Hill: Arbeit am Video. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 121.)
Liesbrock, Heinz. Gary Hill: Midnight Crossing. Münster: Westfälischer Kunstverein, 1997, pp. 19, 20.
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, pp. 69, 71.
Gary Hill: Video Works. Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication Center, 1999, pp. 5, 19 – 21.
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. 91 – 95, 189 – 190, 192, 293.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 8.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 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. 11, 12.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 20, 35, 79, 80.
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. 15, 81, 92 – 95.
Spielmann, Yvonne. Video: The Reflexive Medium. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2008, pp. 110.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 24, 588.
Spoken text:
Four letters
in the alphabet
possess
a quality
significantly differentthan
the others.
When
upside down
or backwards
their
character
remains
the same.
The letters are
H
I
O
X
or HI OXfurthermore O and X may be turned 90 degrees in any direction and still contain their original meaning.
Written text:
horizontal
vertical heightwidth
scan
slew
triangle
envelope
summing
bias
cycle
hold
sequence
event
characters
plot
development
form
content
concept
vision