Core Series "Leaves", 1991
Single-channel video/sound installation
Two modified 13-inch color video monitors (cathode ray tubes removed from chassis), monitor speaker, painted MDF-board pedestal/enclosure, tone-controlled video switcher utilizing one input and two outputs, one laserdisc player and one laserdisc (color; silent)
Dimensions: pedestal: 42 (or 10) h. x 25 w. x 20 d. in. (106 (or 25) x 64 x 51 cm.)
Edition of two and one artist’s proof
Two 13-inch video monitors stripped of their housings are turned vertically and positioned like an open book on top of a white pedestal. (The back of the monitors’ tubes rest on vertical supports that are attached to the top of the pedestal, and wires from the monitors extend down inside the pedestal where the monitors’ electronics are shelved.) On the right monitor is an image of a leaf as seen by a handheld camera. On the left monitor is an image of a leaf held by a right hand as seen by a camera mounted on a tripod. Written text consisting of embedded wordplay (incorporating the words “leave,” “leaf,” “time,” “left,” “right,” “hand,” among others) is superimposed over the two leaf images. The two images alternately flicker on and off at varying rates with only one being on at a given time since they are derived from a single source.
An example of this work was first exhibited in a solo exhibition at Galerie des Archives, Paris, France, September 7 – October 19, 1991.
Japan 92 Video and Television Festival: “Prospectus for a TV Art Channel,” Spiral, Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan, February 1 – 11, 1992.
“Gary Hill: I Believe It Is an Image,” WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, May 20 – August 12, 1992.
“Passage,” WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, February 5 – April 18, 1999.
“Passage a l’art: des lieux et des choses,” Forum culturel du Blanc-Mesnil, Le Blanc-Mesnil, France (Collection of the Conseil général de la Seine-Saint-Denis), May 11 – June 26, 1999.
“Vies Parallèles,” Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France, October 17 – November 20, 2000.
Watari, Shizuko. Gary Hill – I Believe It Is an Image. Tokyo: WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992, unpaginated. (Including a transcription of the text of CORE SERIES “Leaves,” 1991).
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 44 – 47, 60, 84. (Including an excerpt from an interview with Gary Hill).
Yamamori, Eiji. "Gary Hill." Aera Magazine 5, 27, Tokyo (July 1992), p. 72.
Kaihotsu, Chie. “Bad Interview.” Studio Voice, Japan 200 (August 1992), pp. 96, 97.
Van Assche, Christine. Gary Hill. Paris: Editions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1992, pp. 43, 46, 51.
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, pp. 16, 43, 46, 51. (Including an excerpt from Gary Hill, “Inter-view”).
Fonds départmental d’art contemporain de la Seine-Sainte-Denis, Acquisitions 1994 – 1997. Bobigny, France: Conseil Général de la Seine-Sainte-Denis, 1997, pp. 48, 49.
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.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 36, 37, 87 – 90, 222 – 223, 297.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, GHCR 68, pp. 154 – 155.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, p. 205.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 396, 574.
Comer, Stuart, ed. Film and Video Art. London: Tate Publishing, 2009, pp. 6 – 7, 75, 85, 101.
Transcription of written text:
leaves
one leaf left
left one leaf
leaf leaves leaf
leaflet time leave
time leaves time
leaving
one
naked
figure
leaf
figure one
figures in
figure two
figures in
figure one
fig leaves
time overleaf
leaf over time
time figured leaves
leaflike time
time likes leaving
time leaves
left time
time writes
leaving writing
writing leaf
leafing left
leafing right
time left
right out
writing out time
time writes
outright leaf
outright left
leaving right out
leaving outright
right hand holds left leaf
I hold the right leaf
you left the left eye out
out of time
hand held time
time out
leaving time
time left on time
I have a right to leave
right on time
I have a left hand left out
holding out
right hand
hand shakes
takes leaf
leaf shakes hand
take one
leaves take time
time leaves
leavings