GARY HILL

Three video projectors, three-channel synchronizer, two amplified speakers, three DVD players and three DVDs (color, sound)

Dimensions:  Variable, total projection width not to exceed 30 ft. [9.14 meters]

Edition of one and one artist’s proof

Note:  This work was commissioned by the Hellenic Culture Organization and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) for the “Transcultures” exhibition, EMST, Athens, Greece, July 6 – December 31, 2004.

Standing Ground is a three-channel video/sound installation recorded entirely on the metro. Using hidden cameras built into spectacles, buttons, hats, etc., the “viewer” stands in close proximity amongst the people—people from everywhere and from all walks of life. Particularly during crowded times when people are literally pressed against each other, the camera is inches from faces, necks, shoulders, hands, the particularities of chosen jewelry, clothing and accoutrement. Then there are the infinitesimal gestures; glancing, nudging, touching, whispering/talking, hands avoiding other hands on the support poles.

With these images of peoples’ “standing worlds of waiting” the industrial sounds of the metro come into focus - an anonymous carrier moving the motionless from point A to point B.