Black/White/Text, 1980
Video (black-and-white; stereo sound); 7:00 min.
Rutt/Etra video synthesizer (scan processor), black-and-white camera, 4-track audio reel-to-reel audio tape recorder, microphone
Using the phenomenon of inverted (or negative) video feedback, this work constructs a one-to-one correspondence between recited text and image. Black and white rectangles, embedded one within another against a black background, are generated through a closed-circuit system: a camera’s signal is inverted and displayed on a monitor that the same camera is framing. The camera, as it were, sees itself seeing itself seeing itself and so on. (It’s the inversion itself that produces the alternating black and white rectangles). The number of rectangles is based on a precise score involving seven channels of chanted text (all in the voice of the artist)—a kind of “language canon.” A 96 syllable paragraph describing the feedback process is broken into 7 mathematically related groups of syllables (3, 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 96). The first voice recites “rec-tan-gle” (3 syllables) in sync with the first rectangle, which comprises the rhythmic pulse of the piece, repeated continuously (i.e., there is always at least one rectangle on the screen). A second voice comes in, “with-in-a-rec-tan-gle” (6 syllables), in sync with two rectangles. The first voice repeats “rec-tan-gle” twice, so that the two voices now say “rec-tan-gle” at the same time. As more rectangles feed back and multiply, additional voices enter the chant with longer and longer phrases and synchronous parts. Over the course of the work, feedback multiplications mount into a mesmerizing tunnel of concentric rectangles, ultimately disintegrating into fractal-like forms before disappearing altogether. The simultaneous voices in the stereo field slowly grow in density to the point where all seven voices end in unison with “rec-tan-gle.”
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, p. 571.
“Video Viewpoints: Processual Video,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, February 26, 1980.
Solo exhibition. Media Study/Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, May 3 – 18, 1980.
Image Dissector Screening Series, University of California, Los Angeles, California, June 10, 1980.
Group exhibition. “Projects Video XXXV,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, January 15 – February 24, 1981.
Solo exhibition. Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, February 19 – 24, 1981.
Solo screening. Anthology Film Archives, New York, New York, February 28, 1981.
“Gary Hill: Equal Time,” Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, March 28 – May 2, 1982.
"Art Vidéo Rétrospectives et Perspectives,” Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi, Belgium, February 5 – March 27, 1983.
Solo exhibition. Center for Media Art, The American Center, Paris, France, December 13 – 15, 1983.
Solo exhibition. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, May 24 – June 15, 1986.
Japan 87 – The First Video Television Festival: “Private Visions and Media Crossover,” Spiral, Tokyo, Japan, July 29 – August 11, 1987.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, November 16 – 21, 1987.
Solo screening. Espace lyonnais d’art contemporain (ELAC), Lyon, France, July 26 and September 27, 1988.
Vidéoformes 89: Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France, April 20 – 29, 1989.
“OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES,” Video Galleriet, Huset, Denmark and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 20 – May 13, 1990.
"Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place,” Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 1 – 6, 1997 (not the full run of the exhibition); Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, October 3 – November 2, 1997.
Solo exhibition. Center for Contemporary Images, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, September 9, 10, 1998.
“Gary Hill: Video Works,” NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, Japan, February 16 – March 31, 1999.
Solo exhibition. Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 17 – June 4, 2000 (May 24, 2000 screening).
Solo exhibition. Museo Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina, July 7 – 30, 2000 (July 8, 2000 screening).
“Hill(scape),” Extra Microwave Media Art Festival (organized by Videotage), Hong Kong Space Museum Lecture Hall, Hong Kong, January 14 – 31, 2001 (January 21 screening).
“l’écriture vidéophage – les bandes vidéo de Gary Hill,” La Compagnie, Marseille, France, May 1 – 31, 2001 (May 1 and 3 screenings).
“L’oeil-moteur: Art optique et art cinétique, 1950 – 1975,” Musée d’art Moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, France, May 13 – September 25, 2005.
“Videographies – The Early Decades,” EMST (The National Museum of Contemporary Art), Athens, Greece, July 13 – December 31, 2005.
“The Expanded Eye,” Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, June 16 – September 3, 2006.
“Gary Hill: Between Word and Image,” Headquarters of the Superintendence for the Archaeological Heritage of the Vento / Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Verona, Italy, October 14 – 16, 2010.
“Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg at The Hunter Museum,” The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN, May 26 – October 4, 2011.
“Synaptic Connections: Art and the Brain,” Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, September 23, 2011 – January 2012.
"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.Hill, Gary. "Processual Video." Video Viewpoints. New York: Museum of Modern Art, February 1980, unpaginated.
Wooster, Ann-Sargent. “Gary Hill.” Village Voice (February 18 – 24, 1981), unpaginated.
Oeuvres vidéo de Gary Hill en sa présence. Center for Media Art. Program notes. Paris: American Center, 1983, unpaginated.
Furlong, Lucinda. "A Manner of Speaking: An Interview with Gary Hill." Afterimage 10, 8 (March 1983), pp. 12, 15, 16.
Video: A Retrospective. 1974 – 1984. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1984, p. 74.
Hanhardt, John G. and Gary Hill. Gary Hill. The New American Filmmakers Series 30. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986, unpaginated.
Electrovisions: Japan 87 Video Television Festival. Tokyo: Video Gallery SCAN, 1987, p. 93.
2e Semaine International de Video. Geneva: Saint-Gervais Genève, 1987, pp. 63, 127.
Vidéoformes '89: Festival de la Création Vidéo. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Festival de la Création Vidéo, 1989, p. 12.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 25, 78. (Including an excerpt from an interview with Gary Hill)
Van Assche, Christine. Gary Hill. Paris: Editions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1992, p. 10. (Including an excerpt from Gary Hill, “Inter-view”)
Mignot, Dorine. Gary Hill. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum; Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 1993, p. 14. (Including an excerpt from Gary Hill, “Inter-view”)
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, p. 14. (Including an excerpt from Gary Hill, “Inter-view”)
Vischer, Theodora, ed. Gary Hill: Imagining the Brain Closer than the Eyes. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 117. (In German: Gary Hill: Arbeit am Video. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 122.)
Nagy, Pál. Az irodalom úm mufajai. Budapest: Magyar Muhely, 1995, p. 352.
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, p. 69.
Gary Hill: Video Works. Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication Center, 1999, pp. 17, 18.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 69, 192, 201, 204, 217, 293.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 8.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 72.
Hill (scape): Gary Hill’s video screening, performance and installation exhibition. Program notes. Hong Kong: Videotage, 2001, p. 8.
Lageira, Jacinto. Des premiers mots aux derniers silences in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, p. 13.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 21, 95, 96, 100, 113, 209.
Video Acts: Single Channel Works from the Collections of Pamela and Richard Kramlich and New Art Trust. Long Island City: P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, 2003, pp. 173.
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. 25.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, p. 118.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 24, 75, 90 – 92, 571.
Note: This text is also used in the performance of the same name and in the installation, Glass Onion, 1980 - 81.
A texture is drawing a continuum from one voice to another differentiated by measuring the distance between sending and receiving messages voicing the following: rectilinear time enfolds the negative and positive spaces expanding the image that text occupies the space before and after the frame of reference within a rectangle.