GARY HILL

“Language Willing,” Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, September 14 – October 19, 2002.  Note:  First exhibition of the work as a separate two-projection installation, to be differentiated from the single-channel version, Goats and Sheep.

“Sans commune mesure,” Musée d’art moderne de Lille Métropole, Villeneuve d’Asq, France, September 21, 2002 – January 19, 2003.

“Body Matters,” The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway, January 11 – March 11, 2003.

“Rodney Graham, Gary Hill, Joshua Mosley,” Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, January 31 – April 12, 2003.

“Gary Hill: Images of Light,” Museu d’Art Espanyol Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, September 27 – December 30, 2007; Museo de Arte Abstracto Espanol, Cuenca, Spain, January 12 – April 9, 2007.

“Digital Aesthetic 2,” Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, England, March 16 – June 3, 2007.

Zero Field, Beijing, China (exhibition organized by Institute of Electronic Arts, Alfred University, Alfred, New York), June 16 – 30, 2007.

“Gary Hill:  Glass Onion,” 911 Media Arts, Seattle, Washington, August 3 – September 25, 2007.

“Videnie,” PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, Russia, August 20 – October 20, 2009.

“Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg at The Hunter Museum,” The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN, May 26 – October 4, 2011.

"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.

“LANGUAGE/TEXT/IMAGE,” Draiflessen Collection, Mettingen, Germany, October 20, 2024 - February 16, 2025.

"Gary Hill, A Question of Perception," Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, November 30, 2024 - March 16, 2025.

Sans Commune Mesure:  Image et texte dans l’art actuel.  (Paris:  Éditions Léo Scheer, 2002), pp. 91 (photo only).

Lebowitz, Cathy.  “Gary Hill at Barbara Gladstone.” Art in America (March 2003), pp. 119 – 120.

Kroksnes, Andrea.  Body Matters.  Oslo:  The National Museum of Contemporary Art, 2003, pp. 22 – 23 (and front/back cover photos).

Eamon, Christopher.  “Becoming Digital:  James Coleman, Ernie Gehr, Gary Hill.”  Flash Art (March/April 2003), pp. 80 – 83.

Scott, Carrie E.A. “Methodical Man.” Seattle Weekly (August 15 – 21, 2007), p. 42.

Meigh-Andrews, Chris and Aneta Krzemien, eds.  Digital Aesthetic 2.  Preston:  Electronic and Digital Art Unit (EDAU), University of Central Lancashire, 2008), p. 8 (photo only) and cover photo.

Quasha, George and Charles Stein.  An Art of Limina:  Gary Hill’s Works and Writings.  Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 329, 331, 337, 345, 347, 350, 548 – 550, 597.

Goats & Sheep and Twofold (Goats & Sheep) uses the audio and video source material of the installation Withershins, 1995, consisting of two simultaneous views of a person signing: the hands and arms are framed in one and the back of the head and top of the shoulders in the other. This latter view catches the hands when they refer to the head during signing.

The text, which is written by the artist and ‘signed’ in the video(s), represents one possible text derived from a total of 420 phrases that may be accessed by the viewers’ footsteps in the installation of Withershins.

Spoken text:

And if

The right hand

was ingrown

backhandedly

and what if

The left hand

knows

that the right hand

knows

what the right hand

is doing?

is the left undone

and what if

The left hand

was ingrown

deep in the mind

speaking in

many handed ways

growing old in a maze

from one word to the next

questions arise

and eyes inflict words

and right inflects left

from one word to the next

left inflects right

and this inflicts that

hand back and forth

and that inflects this

and words reflect back

from one word to the next

questions arise

in many handed ways

Is the left hand?

and so the logos goes

And if

The left hand

knows

what the right hand

is doing?

thrown as it is

the right

wrote the left

a hand written hand

blown

across the flesh

and if

a hand written hand

folded inside

hand held thoughts

a number of instructions

lost between hemispheres

left for dead

the other

mind

beside yourself

and if the left hand

has a hole

would the right hand

then know?

when a hand

is the other hand

which hand is back and forth

two nodal hemispheres

play havoc

in your skull

the mind can’t

help but mince

and suddenly you are

beside yourself

entertaining a party of two

only to fall back

a few words

a few steps gone by

a number of instructions

on the way language moves

from point A to point B

proceed accordingly

inside a book

outside a hand

swept mind

laid bare

and if

the written word

left the last word

in the palm

of one hand clapping back

and the right hand

was an ear

out of the other’s mind

the left hand spoke

and the right hand

opens the books

laid bare

the left hand does not know

what the right hand

did not know

hands divide

and word by word

language moves

begins to circle

over the book

he writing is

on the wall

and the left is not

reading it

to its next

reflexive moment

to its next

reading

in a way

side ways

way inside

positioned in prayer

the right hand

swallows its palm

and the left hand

swims back

and forth and back

for everything

which is visible

is a copy

of that which is hidden

in every step

and the left hand

is a copy

of that which is hidden

positioned in prayer

way inside

the right hand

stops writing

the left hand

stops to write

the first hand

for the last time

the hand unhands itself

beheads its double

and the left hand is

not the right

the hand unhands itself

and left reflects back

the right hand

the hand left

the right hand

going mad

a house of hands

plays havoc

shaking Matthew’s mind

for the last time

the hand unhands itself

beheads its double

and the left hand is

in the root

reflected back

way inside

its handness

that is to say

reflects upon

what the right hand is

and will be done

on earth as it is

what then?

when the word

“hand” moves

happens to skip

walks on water

that is to say

meets its own reflection

in a way

that propels it

to its next

reflexive moment

between hands

out of hand

the mind eats

reflexive moments

echoing thought

across the abyss

and word by word

hands divide

the prong of duality

impales the mind

to unhand itself a logic

and if

parity

folded in the word play

of parity

and if

laid bare

the left hand does not know

what the right hand

is doing

and the lamb said:

be passerby

reflect

between hands

the misgivings of two

hand apprehends hand

right within the mirror

out of hand

as the right reflects

left within the mirror

quickening the eye

ahead

of one hand clapping

bleeding

and the right hand

left a sound

in a hole

that bleeds the left hand

back into the sound

of a hole

in a hole

that bleeds the left hand

back and forth

the logos moves

back into the sound

and left to die

where hands are tied

behind the mind

hidden within

a few steps

into asymmetry

of mind

and the left hand

of the right hand

the mind can’t know

what hand is left

passes through

a hand

that goaded the gods about

what hand

did what

before hand

and if

the right mind

did not know

what the left hand brings forth

and back to

doubling its reflection

of differences

and if left

in a symmetry

and if left

did not know

the left hand

cannot know

the left hand

and if

the left hand

did not know

what the right hand

held out

in the mind of Matthew

who goaded the gods about

a hand

passes through

what hand is left

sided handedness

and one remains roaming

between hands

and forth and back

dividing

two nodal hemispheres

that play havoc

in your skull

are only copies of

two hands

that play havoc

in your skull

the mind can’t help

and suddenly you are

reminded

of the right hand

the mind can’t know

and suddenly you are

left beside yourself

entertaining a party of two

only to fall back

words into hands

laying upon hands

speaking in many ways

right beside yourself

entertaining a party of two

only to fall back

a few steps

a few words

instructions on how to move

thoughts in the body

behind the mind

where hands are tied

and left to die

by the hand that feeds

and if the left hand

has a hole

would the right hand

then know? when a hand

is the other hand

which hand is back and forth

two nodal hemispheres

play havoc

in your skull

the mind can’t

help but mince

and suddenly you are

beside yourself

left hidden

and the right hand

left a sound

of one hand clapping

ahead

quickening the eye

left within the mirror

as the right reflects

back-words

right within the mirror

hand apprehends hand

the misgivings of two

escaping handedness

and the lamb said:

to become someone else

proceed accordingly

from point A to point B

hand held thoughts

folded inside

a hand written hand

blown

minds

folded inside

a hand written hand

blown

across the flesh

of symmetries

a hand unhands itself

hands itself back

words into

The left hand

was ingrown