In Situ, 1986
Mixed media installation
Modified easy chair, modified 13-inch color monitor (cathode ray tube removed from chassis) within 20-inch monitor frame/enclosure, five painted MDF board constructions with six electric fans, motorized paper feeder, photo-copied paper, two speakers, wood platform, gray ridged carpet, controlling electronics, one DVD player and one DVD (color; mono sound)
Dimensions: relative to platform: 12 x 16 ft. (3.66 x 4.88 m.)
Edition of two and one artist’s proof
The primary components of this installation are positioned on a plywood platform routed for cabling and covered with a ridged medium-gray carpet. A “shrunken” television sits inside the frame of a larger television’s frame/enclosure. A modified easy chair with a cushion slightly smaller than it should be, mirrors the condition of the television it faces. Four electric fans, positioned in the corners of the raised floor and angled towards the center of the space, intermittently turn on and off, providing a mix of air currents directed at a motorized paper-feeder mounted on the ceiling. The paper-feeder ejects a family of images related to what is being seen on the television. The images consist of off-air footage centered on “Irangate” (1986) and how that information seems to recede and lose significance over time. These images are intercut with others of the artist eating, reading, and swimming that refer to Maurice Blanchot’s novel Thomas the Obscure. Two additional fans are mounted opposite one another in a triangular base which is placed between the chair and the television. The television itself is also controlled to turn on and off at designated times. All the automation is programmed in relationship to what is taking place on the television.
An example of this work was first exhibited at the National Video Festival of the American Film Institute, Los Angeles, California, December 4 – 7, 1986.
“The Situated Image,” Mandeville Gallery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, May 16 – June 14, 1987.
“Cinq pièces avec vue: 2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo,” organized by Bel Veder, Centre génevois de gravure contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland, November 16 – 21, 1987.
Solo exhibition. Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, Washington, September 1 – 30, 1987.
“OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES,” Video Galleriet, Huset, Denmark and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 20 – May 13, 1990.
“Gary Hill: Strange Trajectories,” NRW-Forum / IMAI (Inter Media Art Institute), Dusseldorf, Germany, September 15 – October 28, 2007.
“TV/ARTS/TV,” Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Spain, October 14 – December 8, 2010.
1986 National Video Festival. Los Angeles: American Film Institute, 1986, p. 20.
Cinq pièces avec vue. Geneva: Centre genevois de gravure contemporaine, 2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo, 1987, unpaginated.
2e Semaine International de Video. Geneva: Bel Veder, Centre Génevois de Gravure Contemporaine, 1987, pp. 44, 68, 69, 84, 85, 98 – 101.
The Situated Image. San Diego: Mandeville Gallery, University of California, San Diego, 1987, pp. 10, 11.
De Moffarts, Eric. “Télévision: le dernier carré?: La 2ème Semaine Internationale de Vidéo à Genève.” Gen Lock 7 (December 1987), pp. 11, 12.
OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES: Video by Gary Hill. Copenhagen: Video Gallerie/Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1990, pp. 20, 21, 24 – 26, 28.
Mittenthal, Robert. Gary Hill: And Sat Down Beside Her. Paris: Galerie des Archives, 1990, unpaginated.
Passages de l’image. Paris: Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 1990, pp. 54, 55. (In Spanish: Passages de l’image. Barcelona: Centre Cultural de la Fundació Caixa de Pensions, 1991, pp. 71, 73.)
Chion, Michel. “La bouche et la video.” L’Image Video 3 (April/May 1990), pp. 20 – 22.
Romano, Gianni. “Inasmuch as it is always already taking place.” LAPIZ 80 (October 1991), pp. 36, 40, 41.
Watari, Shizuko. Gary Hill – I Believe It Is an Image. Tokyo: WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992, unpaginated.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 36, 44, 56, 82. (Including an excerpt from an interview with Gary Hill).
Sarrazin, Stephen. “La parole aux objets.” art press 165, France (January 1992), p. 22.
Gary Hill: In Light of the Other. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art Oxford; Liverpool: The Tate Gallery Liverpool, 1993, pp. 33, 34.
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, pp. 100, 130.
Sarrazin, Stephen. “Gary Hill. Dai un senso a ciò che muovi.” Flash Art XXVI, 174 (April 1993), p. 35. (In English: “Gary Hill: mean what you move.” Flash Art (International Edition) 173 (November/December 1993), pp. 86, 87.)
Bruce, Chris. Gary Hill. Seattle, Washington: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1994, pp. 92, 93.
3e biennale d’art cotemporain de lyon: installation, cinéma, vidéo, informatique. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, Biennale d’art contemporain, Paris, 1995, p. 174.
Beckmann, Angelika. “Gary Hill.” European Photography 58, 16, 2 (Fall 1995), p. 62.
Lestocart, Louis-José. “Gary Hill: Surfer sur le medium / Surfing the Medium.” art press 210 (February 1996), pp. 20, 21.
The Multimedia and Cultural Revolution. Tokyo: NTT Intercommunication Center, 1997, p. 131.
Stals, José Lebrero. Gary Hill: HanD HearD – Withershins – Midnight Crossing. Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 1998, p. 11.
“Liminal Performance: Gary Hill in Conversation with George Quasha and Charles Stein,” PAJ (Performing Arts Journal) No. 58, Vol. XX, No. 1 (January 1998), p. 11.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 79, 87, 107, 221, 233 – 234, 252 – 253.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 33.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 41.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. La performance elle-même in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, p. 56 - 57.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, GHCR 54, pp. 124, 125.
Shaw, Jeffrey and Peter Weibel. Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film. Karlsruhe: ZKM and Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003, pp. 306 - 307.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, pp. 266, 283, 286.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 321, 322, 323, 468, 469, 495, 521, 582, 600, 601, 604.
Gary Hill: Viewer. Moscow: GMG Gallery, 2010 (in Russian and English), pp. 34, 35.
TV / ARTS / TV: La televisión tomada por los artistas. Barcelona: Arts Santa Mònica, 2010 (in Spanish), pp. 9, 19, 20, 74 – 77.