Learning Curve (still point), 1993
Mixed media installation
Modified 5-inch black-and-white video monitor (cathode ray tube removed from chassis), plywood and stainless steel combined table/chair construction, one laserdisc player and one laserdisc (black and white; silent)
Dimensions: 35 x 32 2/3 x 225 3/4 in. (89 x 83 x 572 cm.)
Edition of two and one artist’s proof
Learning Curve (still point) is the second of two works that uses the model of a school chair with an attached desktop that curves around the body. Whereas the first incarnation, Learning Curve (1993), was made for right-handed people, this version is for the left-handed. Its slightly inclined bleached wood surface, looking something like the expanse of a beach, extends sixteen feet (4.9 meters) out into the distance, reaching an imaginary point of infinity. There at the end on the top surface, a small five-inch monitor displays the side view of a perfect wave throwing out its mass in a continual spiraling motion which enfolds upon itself as it remakes itself.
An example of this work was first exhibited at the Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, from December 3, 1993 – February 20, 1994 as part of “Gary Hill: Sites Recited.”
“Gary Hill,” (travelling exhibition organized by the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D. C., February 17 – May 8, 1994; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, June 10 – August 14, 1994; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, December 19, 1994 – March 12, 1995; Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York, New York, May 11 – August 20, 1995; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, October 14, 1995 – January 14, 1996.
“Gary Hill,” Musée d’art contemporain, Lyon, France, May 26 – September 19, 1994.
“Light into Art: From Video to Virtual Reality,” Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 19, 1994 – January 14, 1995.
Solo exhibition. Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy, March 7 – June 31, 1996.
“Water: The Renewable Metaphor,” Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, October 17, 1997 – January 4, 1998.
Solo exhibition. Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, March 1 – April 19, 1998.
“Lateral Thinking: Art of the 1990’s,” Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, California, September 16, 2001 – January 13, 2002; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 27, 2002 – January 4, 2003; Hood Museum, Dartmouth University, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 3 – March 14, 2004; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, July 17 – October 17, 2004.
“Surf Culture: The Art History of Surfing,” The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI, January 30 – March 31, 2003. Note: The work was not included in previous venues of this exhibition.
“Gary Hill: Depth Charge,” Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan, February 26 – April 30, 2015.
"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.
Gary Hill: In Light of the Other. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art Oxford and Liverpool: The Tate Gallery Liverpool, 1993, pp. 32 – 35.
Awards 1994 for outstanding contributions to the visual arts. London: National Art Collections Fund, 1994, unpaginated.
Bruce, Chris. Gary Hill. Seattle, Washington: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1994, pp. 91 – 95.
Light into Art: From Video to Virtual Reality. Program notes. Cincinnati, Ohio: Contemporary Arts Center, 1994, unpaginated.
Roth, Charlene. “Louder than words. Gary Hill at the Long Beach Museum of Art.” Artweek 25 (January 20, 1994), p. 15.
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.
New York Magazine (March 21, 1994).
Fredericksen, Eric. “Gary Hill.” The Stranger, Seattle (June 21 – 27, 1994).
Barcott, Bruce. “I was a camera. Art: Gary Hill straps on his video equipment and takes us for a walk.” Seattle Weekly (June 22, 1994), p. 30.
Camper, Fred. “Split Images. Gary Hill at the Museum of Contemporary Art.” Chicago Reader (November 4, 1994), Section 1, p. 28.
3e biennale d’art cotemporain de lyon: installation, cinéma, vidéo, informatique. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, Biennale d’art contemporain, Paris, 1995, p. 175.
Meyers, Todd. “Consciousness and Fragmentation. Gary Hill Encountering Bodies.” Fuse Magazine 18, 3 (Spring 1995), p. 47.
Duncan, Michael. “In Plato’s electronic cave.” Art in America 83, 6 (June 1995), pp. 68, 69.
Beckmann, Angelika. “Gary Hill.” European Photography 58, 16, 2 (Fall 1995), p. 66.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Gary Hill: HanD HearD/liminal objects. Paris: Galerie des Archives; Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1996, unpaginated.
Young, Lisa Jaye. “Electronic Verses: Reading the Body vs. Touching the Text,” Performing Arts Journal 52, 18, 1 (January 1996), p. 38.
Lestocart, Louis-José. “Gary Hill: Surfer sur le medium / Surfing the Medium.” art press 210 (February 1996), p. 24.
97 Kwangju Biennale: Unmapping the Earth. Kwangju, Korea: Kwangju Biennale Press, 1997, p. 65.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Tall Ships. Gary Hill’s Projective Installations 2. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1997, p. 8.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Viewer. Gary Hill’s Projective Installations 3. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1997, pp. 9, 78.
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, p. 87.
Petho, Bertalan. post-postmodernism: The Nineties: Opinions and Philosophical Investigations Concerning Our Change of Era. Budapest: Platon, 1997, pp. 97, 336.
Water: The Renewable Metaphor. Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Museum of Art, 1997, pp. 6, 7, 15, 24.
Do, Willo. “Overseas Artist: Interview with Gary Hill.” Space, Japan (April 1997), p. 83.
Bélisle, Josée. Gary Hill. Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 1998, p. 47.
Stals, José Lebrero. Gary Hill: HanD HearD – Withershins – Midnight Crossing. Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 1998, p. 20.
“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. 12.
Kold, Anders, ed. Gary Hill. Aarhus: Aarhus Kunstmuseum, 1999, p. 47.
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg Gesammelte Werke 1 Zeitgenössische Kunst seit 1968. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 1999, pp. 220, 225.
Galasso, Alessandra. “California Dreaming: Sbarcano in Italia i video del surfista dell’immagine.” Arte, Italy, No. 313 (September 1999), pp. 167 - 168.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 2, 8, 106, 107, 127, 254.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 33.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, pp. 9, 42.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. La performance elle-même in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 28, 61, 70.
Rowlands, Penelope. “Gary Hill’s Hall of Mirrors.” ARTnews 100, 5 (May 2001), pp. 177.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. (Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002), GHCR 79, pp. 174 – 176.
Lateral Thinking: Art of the 1990’s. (San Diego: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2002), pp. 2 – 3, 17, 62 – 63.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 223, 279, 281, 285, 313, 449, 470, 483, 583.
Tagliafierro, Marco. "Critics Picks_Gary Hill: Lia Rumma, Milan." Art Forum (March, 2015)