Cut Pipe, 1992
Mixed media installation
Two aluminum pipes (each 60 in. [152 cm.] long and 8 in. [20 cm.] in diameter), one modified 5-inch black-and-white video monitor (cathode ray tube removed from chassis) with projection lens, three speakers fit to the circumference of the pipes, one laserdisc player and one laserdisc (black-and-white; mono sound)
Dimensions: as installed, approx. 11 ft. (3.35 m.) long
Edition of three and one artist’s proof
Two pieces of aluminum pipe are installed end to end on the floor. They are positioned approximately 8 - 12 inches (20 – 30 cm.) apart as if they were once a single pipe that has been cut and pulled apart. In one pipe, a 5-inch black-and-white monitor is mounted behind a lens that is flush with the end of the pipe. In the other pipe an 8-inch loud speaker is mounted flush to its end. Two other 8-inch speakers are mounted inside the pipes facing out the opposite ends. A spoken text is heard, sounding as if it is being funneled through the pipe onto the visible speaker. A video image of hands pressing into the skin of a speaker - touching and manipulating it - is projected across the gap directly on the skin of the speaker, which has been painted white. The cut pipe becomes a metaphorical cross-section of the relationship between sound and image connected by the body. This central idea is reinforced by the literal projection of the image of the speaker / object onto the object itself and the spoken self-reflexive text that interacts with the physical manipulation of the speaker by the hands at the membrane of physicality - the skin of the object / speaker.
An example of this work was first exhibited by the Donald Young Gallery at Basel 23’92, Basel, Switzerland, June 17 – 22, 1992.
Solo exhibition. Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington, January 29 – March 12, 1993.
“Gary Hill: Sites Recited,” Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, December 3, 1993 – February 20, 1994.
“Altered States: American Art in the ‘90s,” Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, Missouri, March 24 – May 6, 1995.
“Sonambiente,” Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany, August 9 – September 8, 1996.
“Crossings,” Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria, May 29 – September 13, 1998; Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic, June 24 – September 12, 1999.
“Seeing Time: Selections from the Richard and Pamela Kramlich Collection of Media Art,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, October 15, 1999 – January 9, 2000; Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM), Karlsruhe, Germany, November 29, 2000 – April 22, 2001.
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, March 7 - 13, 2002. (screening of video component only)
“Image, Body, Text: Selected Works by Gary Hill,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, March 24 – May 30, 2005.
TONSPUR_expanded III, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria, December 10, 2010 - February 20, 2011.
"Gary Hill," bitforms Gallery at Basel Art Fair (featured) , Switzerland, June 9 – 14, 2018.
"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.
Van Assche, Christine. Gary Hill. Paris: Editions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1992, pp. 82, 83.
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, pp. 86, 87.
Smallwood, Lyn. “Gary Hill’s skin flicks.” Seattle Weekly (March 3, 1993).
Slemmons, Rod. "Gary Hill. Under New Skins." Reflex (May/June 1993), p. 13.
Grout, Catherine. "Gary Hill – La condition humaine de la pensee." Arte Factum 48 (June/July/August 1993), p. 12.
Failing, Patricia. “Donald Young Gallery, Seattle.” Artnews 92 (September 1993), p. 182.
Bruce, Chris. Gary Hill. Seattle, Washington: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1994, pp. 54 – 59.
Willis, Holly. “The Unknown That Knows Where the Hole in the Mind Resides: Installations and Videos by Gary Hill at the Long Beach Museum of Art.” Video Networks, San Francisco (February/March 1994), p. 21.
Altered States: American Art in the 90’s. St. Louis, Missouri: Forum for Contemporary Art, 1995, p. 14.
Klangkunst - Sonambiente festival für hören und sehen. Berlin: Akademie der Kunste, 1996, p. 71.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Tall Ships. Gary Hill’s Projective Installations 2. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1997, p. 7.
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. 20 – 22.
Crossings: Kunst zum Hören und Sehen. Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 1998, pp. 166, 167.
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg Gesammelte Werke 1 Zeitgenössische Kunst seit 1968. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 1999, p. 224, 225.
Seeing Time: Selections from the Pamela and Richard Kramlich Collection of Media Art. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1999, pp. 46, 124 - 127.
Sullivan, Missy. “Pixel Picassos.” FORBES (November 15, 1999), p. 320.
Marclay, Christian and Gary Hill. “Christian Marclay / Gary Hill: Conversation,” Annandale (Bard College), Vol. 139, No. 1 (Spring 2000), p. 7.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, pp. 19 - 20.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. La performance elle-même in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 7 – 9, 34 – 35.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. (Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002), GHCR 74, pp. 163 – 165.
Rush, Michael. “A Résumé of Surfing and Philosophy as Well as Art.” The New York Times (September 15, 2002), pp. 31 – 32.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, pp. 151 - 153.
Meigh-Andrews, Chris and Aneta Krzemien, eds. Digital Aesthetic 2. Preston: Electronic and Digital Art Unit (EDAU), University of Central Lancashire, 2008), pp. 42 – 43.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 10, 37, 45, 47, 281 – 293, 427, 429, 575.
sounding the image
imaging a sound
locating the sound of my voice
imaging my voice
pushing my voice through the object
setting my voice to the image
to the sound
sounding the image
imaging the sound
touching my voice
encoding the object
touching the object
decoding my voice
fingering the threshold
surfing the space
following the edge
circuitous spiral inverting the polarities
investigating both beginnings and both ends
around an extended period of time
the time of my voice
the space of determination
tangent with my finger
my voice my finger
two nodes tuning the meaning of an action
sounding the image
imaging the sound
my skin its skin forming another skin
the skin of myself circulating with self-corrective pressure on its skin
forming a skin of space where I voice from
the skin is always forming and shedding itself
I have my finger on it moving it
I have my finger on my voice tracking it
driving it
moving the skin
spinning the skin
continuing the space
playing the meaning
stretching the skin taut
touching down
touching sound
touching image
touching touching
voicing my thoughts between the skins
playing the skin
drumming my thoughts into the skin
driving the space
driving the speaker
imaging the sound hitting your skin
keeping the space taut
drumming your mind through the skin
circulating the space
circulating the sound
grafting my voice to the skin space
tracing our spiral in and out
pulling the skin
pushing the skin
sending the skin to push the space to pull your skin taut
to touch your space
circulating the skin
I have my finger on my voice
tangent to the skin
put your finger on it
put your mind through it
skin your thought
graft your skin
shed your skin
I want your skin
give your skin to me
I want to put my finger on it
I want to circumscribe the space
tracking the threshold
imaging the sound
sounding the image
forming the skin space
drumming your mind through the skin
drumming the skin stretched through your mind
I want your mind
I want your mind for the skin space
I want to peel the skin through the space
imaging the skin
peeling back the space
sounding the skin taut
the skin is pushing my voice
the skin is pulling my voice
forming a skin of space where I voice from
stretching my voice to the edge
pulling the skin
pushing the skin
sending the skin to push the space to pull our skin taut
sounding the sounding
imaging the imaging
sounding the imaging
voicing the skin
spacing the thoughts under the skin
pulling it taut
locating the space
imaging the distance between soundings
sounding the skin stretched between us
I want the skin
I want to spread the skin
I want to cover my voice with the skin
steal the skin giving voice to the skin
cover the skin with the image of skin
space the sound
ground the voice to the skin