Midnight Crossing, 1997
Mixed media installation
Aluminum pipe and sheeting, 3-tube video projector, six strobe lights, four speakers, strobe controller, one DVD player and one DVD (color; mono sound)
Dimensions of aluminum structure: 11 ½ x 14 x 8 ½ ft. (3.5 x 4.3 x 2.6 m.)
Edition of two and one artist’s proof
Midnight Crossing involves a singular aluminum structure of scaffolding that supports a cinematic screen (measuring 11.5 h. x 14 w. x 8.5 d. ft.) reminiscent of an outdoor drive-in movie theatre. The space is completely dark. The projected images consist of a series of low-level color images of fragments of scenes, mostly recorded in Guatemala and Pompeii. Short phrases are spoken between varying periods of silence. There are six extreme high-intensity lights – strobe lights that flash at rates that make them appear continuous – aimed toward the screen. When the voice is speaking, the lights are on, illuminating the reflective aluminum and obliterating the last projected image. After each phrase has been spoken, the viewers are cast in utter darkness with afterimages of the screen appearing on their retinas. The color images slowly fade up from the darkness “mixing” with the memory of the (cinema) screen and memories of previous images and spoken words.
The origin of the title Midnight Crossing is a technical term that identifies a point in time that is a kind of no man's land. Video uses what is called time code to identify the individual frames. The change of time code (hours, minutes, seconds, frames) from 23:59:59:59 to 00:00:00:00 is the midnight crossing, which is then followed by 00:00:00:01. [Gary Hill in Gary Hill: Midnight Crossing, Münster, 1997, p. 24.]
An example of this work was first exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany, June 20 – September 28, 1997.
Solo exhibition. Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland, December 1, 1997 – January 11, 1998.
Solo exhibition. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Quebec, Canada, January 30 – May 3, 1998.
Solo exhibition. Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain, July 16 – September 27, 1998.
“Passage du Temps: une sélection d’oeuvres de la Francois Pinault Foundation,” Tri Postal, Lille, France, October 15, 2007 – January 6, 2008.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Viewer. Gary Hill’s Projective Installations 3. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1997, p. 9.
Liesbrock, Heinz. Gary Hill: Midnight Crossing. Münster: Westfälischer Kunstverein, 1997, pp. 14, 15, 42 – 62.
Hürzeler, Catherine. “Kann man auf abstrakte Weise surfen? Ein Gespräch mit dem Videokünstler Gary Hill.” Das Kunst-Bulletin 9 (September 1997), pp. 13 – 15.
Bélisle, Josée. Gary Hill. Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 1998, pp. 9, 13, 15, 17, 34, 35, 55.
Ceruti, Mary. Gary Hill: 23:59:59:23 – The Storyteller’s Room. San Francisco: Capp Street Project, 1998, unpaginated.
Gary Hill: Midnight Crossing. (Warsaw: Center for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, 1998). In Polish.
Stals, José Lebrero. Gary Hill: HanD HearD – Withershins – Midnight Crossing. Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 1998, pp. 14, 15, 42 – 62.
Der elektronische Raum: 15 Positionen zur Medienkunst. Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Dueuschland, 1998, pp. 7, 15, 158.
TV Dinner No. 2 at The Kitchen: Gary Hill and Meg Stuart. Program notes. New York: The Kitchen, 1998, unpaginated.
Aquin, Stephanie. “Gary Hill – Vague de fond.” Voir, Montreal (February 12, 1998), p. 25.
Tougas, Colette. “Gary Hill. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 30 janvier – 26 avril.” Parachute 90 (April - June 1998), p. 44.
Campeau, Sylvain. “Epistémologie de la réalité visuelle: Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal.” Vie des Arts, Montreal 42, 170 (Spring 1998), p. 82.
Bellemare-Brière, Véronique. “Gary Hill – La vidéo reine au MAC.” Séquences, Montreal 196 (May – June 1998), p. 55.
La Chance, Michaël. “Vidéognose.” Spirale, Montreal (May – June 1998), pp. 12 – 13.
“Del paraíso de Delvaux a las instalaciones de Gary Hill y Baldessari,” El Punto de las Artes, Barcelona (July 17 –31, 1998), p. 11.
Sarrazin, Stephen. “Things Fall Apart: Gary Hill & Meg Stuart (with Damaged Goods) ‘Splayed Mind Out’/Gary Hill: Installations and Videotapes.” Intercommunication 25 (Summer 1998), p. 83.
Provencher, Louise. “Catastrophe(s) en ou le bégaiement du temps,” Espace 44, Montreal (Summer 1998), pp. 28, 29.
“Los museos catalanes hacen su agosto: menú de exposiciones a la carta.” ABC Cataluña, Barcelona (August 8, 1998).
Bosco, Roberta. “Gary Hill, en el Macba: En busca de un nuevo lenguaje.” El Periodico del Arte 14 (August/September 1998).
Sadurni, Isabel. “Gary Hill: Capp Street Project, San Francisco.” Art News 97, 9 (October 1998), p. 149.
Bellemare-Brière, Véronique. “La vidéo s’éclate.” Esse, Montreal 4 (1998), p. 5.
Kold, Anders, ed. Gary Hill. Aarhus: Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 1999, p. 84.
Murphy, Jay. “Gary Hill and the ‘New Aesthetic Paradigm.’” Paper presented at the International Association of Philosophy and Literature (IAPL) Conference “Postmodern Sites,” Hartford, CT, May 12, 1999. (Reprinted at www.thing.net/~ soulcity/ap/)
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 12, 168 – 177.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 44.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 23.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. La performance elle-même in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 28, 30 – 31, 32 – 33, 38, 102, 103.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 28, 37, 40, 41, 46, 206, 210, 211.
Barro, David. Gary Hill: Poeta da percepção, poet of perception, poeta de la percepción. In Portuguese, Spanish and English. Porto: Mimesis, 2003, pp. 16, 38, 60.
Shaw, Jeffrey and Peter Weibel, eds. Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film. Karlsruhe: ZKM and Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003, pp. 310 - 311.
Gary Hill: Resounding Arches / Archi Risonanti. (Catalogue and DVD.) Rome: Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali Soprintendenza archeologica di Roma, and Milan: Mondadori Electa S.p.A., 2005, pp. 148.
Daniel, Noel, ed. Broken Screen: 26 Conversations with Doug Aitken: Expanding the Image, Breaking the Narrative. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, 2006, p. 160.
Samaniego, Alberto Ruiz de. “Gary Hill and Maurice Blanchot: Dialogues at the Threshold.” Dardo magazine, 2 (June – September 2006), pp. 146 – 179.
Passage du Temps. Une sélection d’oeuvres autour de l’image Collection François Pinault Foundation. Milan: Skira Editore S.p.A., 2007, pp. 31, 146 – 149.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, p. 148.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 27, 408 – 411, 416, 417, 449 – 452, 523, 524, 584, 627.
Gagnon, Jean. “Gary Hill à la recherche de la perte technologique / An Interview with Gary Hill.” artpress 2: Arts Technologiques - Conservation et Restauration (February/March/April 2009), pp. 10 – 21. (French and English)
something
touched
another way
perhaps
one is
against
him
the silent hymn
sung in absence of the other one
he she
every instant had finally become every instant
miraculously
we hadn’t hit bottom
even darkness
imparted a kind of brightness hidden within itself
it said, “all is possible” with cruel circularity
outside
the belief
everything is burning
being extinguished by the many different hearths
separate fires engulfing one another with cold passion
each one working wherever it likes as it likes
like attracts like
like images attract words
only then to push them away
the way of embers
their indifferent beauty
loss illuminates
that person
standing
difference
at least one
abruptly I look up counting
a moth flies into my mouth
mistaking the numbed words for light