Hole in the Wall, 1974
Intermedia sculpture (performance)
One 25-inch black-and-white or color video monitor (size variable), two speakers, one DVD player and one DVD (black-and-white or color; sound)
Dimensions variable (based on size of monitor)
Edition of two and one artist’s proof
A monitor mounted in an external wall of a room/space presents a real time recording (sound and image) of the cutting of a hole and the monitor finally being placed there. The sequence is as follows:
The camera zooms in and frames a space of actual size based on the dimensions of a given video monitor. Hands enter the edges of the frame and draw with graphite a rectangle defining the hole to be cut. Using various tools, whatever is necessary for the deconstruction, one by one, layers of the wall are removed. Depending on the construction of the particular space, this could range from fabric, paint, paper, wallboard, wood, brick, masonite, insulation, etc. These layers are all seen as each one is removed until some landscape from the outside is finally visible. The monitor is seen lifted into the hole at which time there is a brief moment of feedback (camera seeing itself seeing itself…), and the recording then replays.
Originally executed at the Woodstock Artists’ Association, Woodstock, New York, as part of a group exhibition in December of 1974.
“Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1965-1976,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, October 18, 2001 - January 6, 2002 (performed by Mark B. McLoughlin); Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, June 30 – September 8, 2002 (performed by Mark B. McLoughlin).
“GUARDAMI: Percezioni del video,” Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy, October 15, 2005 – January 8, 2006 (performed by Mark B. McLoughlin).
“Faux Jumeaux,” S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium, September 14 – October 5, 2009 (performed by Christelle Fillod).
Furlong, Lucinda. “A Manner of Speaking: An Interview with Gary Hill.” Afterimage 10, 8 (March 1983), p. 12.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 39, 81, 82. (Including excerpts from an interview with Gary Hill).
Murin, Preložil Michal. “Gary Hill.” Profil. Súcasného Výtvarného Umenia (December 1993), p. 28.
Bruce, Chris. Gary Hill. Seattle, Washington: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1994, p. 97.
Vischer, Theodora, ed. Gary Hill: Imagining the Brain Closer than the Eyes. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 112. (In German: Gary Hill: Arbeit am Video. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 118.)
Joachimides, Christos M. and Norman Rosenthal, eds. The Age of Modernism. Art in the 20th Century. Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1997, p. 603.
Stals, José Lebrero. Gary Hill: HanD HearD – Withershins – Midnight Crossing. Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 1998, p. 9.
Der elektronische Raum: 15 Positionen zur Medienkunst. Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Dueuschland, 1998, p. 147.
“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. 4.
Amalfitano, Lelia. Gary Hill: Placing Sense Ö Sens Placé. Program notes. Boston: School of the Museum of Fine Arts, 1999, unpaginated.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 2, 82, 191-192, 220, 245-246.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, pp. 29 - 30.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 36.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. La performance elle-même in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, p. 45.
Iles, Chrissie. Into the Light. The Projected Image in American Art 1964 – 1977. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2001, pp. 17, 60 – 61, 142 – 143.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 19, 20, 59.
Rush, Michael. “A Résumé of Surfing and Philosophy as Well as Art.” The New York Times (September 15, 2002), pp. 31 – 32.
Schnoor, Chris. “Re-Thinking the Image: Video Art by Gary Hill at Boise Art Museum.” BoiseWeekly 11, 29 (January 22 – 28, 2003), pp. 13 – 16.
Barro, David. Gary Hill: Poeta da percepção, poet of perception, poeta de la percepción. In Portuguese, Spanish and English. Porto: Mimesis, 2003, pp. 9 – 10, 31, 53.
Plate, S. Brent. “Between Cinema and a Hard Place: Gary Hill’s Video Art Between Words and Images.” Criticism 45, 1 (Winter 2003), pp. 119.
Schnoor, Chris. “Thinking the Image: Gary Hill at ASU Art Museum.” Shade (October / November 2003), pp. 24.
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. 20 – 21, 29 – 30.
Guardami: Percezione del video. Siena: Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, 2005, pp. 62 – 63, 80 – 81, 112 – 113.
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. 161.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 37, 460 – 462, 581.
Comer, Stuart, ed. Film and Video Art. London: Tate Publishing, 2009, pp. 85.
Gary Hill: Viewer. Moscow: GMG Gallery, 2010 (in Russian and English), pp. 16, 17.