GARY HILL

One 45-inch (or larger) 16:9 format LCD monitor and wall mount, one DVD player and one DVD (color; sound)

Dimensions variable (45-inch monitor: 25 ½ h. x 43 w. inches [65 x 109 cm.])

Edition of five and one artist’s proof

Although related to the earlier series entitled Liminal Objects (1995 – 98), in which specific iconic pairs of black-and-white, computer-generated animated objects continuously pass through one another via their shared geometries in virtual space, the works in this recent series (which include Big Legs Don’t Cry, 2005; Attention, 2005; Church and State, 2005; and Spoonful, 2005) are rendered in color and created specifically for a wide-screen format, flat-panel 45-inch (or larger) LCD screen.  These works involve objects that, in a sense, violate each other’s borders in unpredictable ways, with the repetitive interaction and circular logic of their movement suggesting different readings of these veritable micro-scenes.  Hinting at elements of symbology, they are “objects on the threshold of being something other than objects, ‘animated’ in a sense deeper and stranger than the technical.”

In Church and State, a goat and sheep trot and circle around one another, at times merging through each other’s bodies.  While the other works in the Liminal Objects series are silent, the repetitive interaction of the animals is further reinforced in this piece by the sound of their bleating cries and the soft, unremitting clop of their hooves.  The suggestive title adds another layer of ambiguity and open interpretation.