Tale Enclosure, 1985
Video (color, stereo sound); 5:30 min.
Color video camera, microphone and closed-circuit video monitor
Tale Enclosure is a real time fragment selected from three hours of recordings made at the Stained Glass Studio in Barrytown, New York, where Why Do Things Get in a Muddle? (Come On Petunia) was also taped. During the recording, performers George Quasha and Charles Stein monitored themselves on a closed-circuit system responding to a continuously changing image of themselves created by Gary Hill’s camera work. The piece begins with a short written text (“axial poem”) by Quasha which fades in and out one word at a time—the etching of the “tale enclosure”—as Quasha and Stein begin vocalizing from the very grain of language. The improvisational search for voices passes through recognizable swarms of phonemes with a word or phrase briefly coming into focus now and then. Camera movements and continual focal play mirror the highly nuanced vocal expression, tightly coupled with body and facial movements. At times the image plane fills with rapid hand movements (“Somamudra”), blurred due to their speed and appearing like fire. The voices build upon one another, rising and falling in volume and pitch, sometimes in unison, other times in “conversation,” in a seeming attempt to let the primary roots of language speak for themselves.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, p. 594.
George Quasha and Charles Stein, performers
“The Image of Fiction: International Videoart, Infermental V,” organized by Con Rumore, Rotterdam, Germany. Opened on April 10, 1986, at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany, and traveled internationally.
Solo screening. Port Washington Public Library, Port Washington, New York, May 22, 1986.
“New York City Experimental Video and Film Festival,” Global Village, New York, New York, May 30, 31, 1986. Traveled to: Donnell Library, New York Public Library, New York, New York, June 6, 7, 1986; Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences, Staten Island, New York, June 15, 1986.
"Meet the Makers/Video Vectors: Gary Hill,” Donnell Library, New York Public Library, New York, New York, October 9, 1986.
National Video Festival, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, California, December 4 – 7, 1986.
“The Other New York: Regional Reflection,” American Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York, April 3, 4, 1987.
7. Berner Poesietage, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland, April 4 – 12, 1987.
“An Evening with Gary Hill,” Northwest Film & Video Center, Oregon Art Institute, Portland, Oregon, October 1, 1987.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, November 16 – 21, 1987.
Solo screening. Western Front, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 16, 1988.
Solo screening. Espace lyonnais d’art contemporain (ELAC), Lyon, France, July 26 & September 27, 1988.
Vidéoformes 89: Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France, April 20 – 29, 1989.
Solo exhibition. “OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES,” Video Galleriet, Huset, Denmark and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 20 – May 13, 1990.
"Impakt: Festival voor Experimentele Kunst," Utrecht, Holland, May 23 – 26, 1991.
“Gary Hill: In Light of the Other,” Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, November 7, 1993 – January 9, 1994; The Tate Gallery, Liverpool, England, February 25 – May 2, 1994.
“Gary Hill: Sites Recited,” Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, December 3, 1993 – February 20, 1994.
Sedicesima Biennale Internazionale del Bronzetto Piccola Scultura Padova, Padua, Italy, October 29, 1995 – January 28, 1996.
“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.
“Gary Hill,” Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, January 30 – May 3, 1998.
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 27, 2000 screening).
Solo exhibition. Museo Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina, July 7 – 30, 2000 (July 22, 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 19 & 21 screenings).
“l’écriture vidéophage – les bandes vidéo de Gary Hill,” La Compagnie, Marseille, France, May 1 – 31, 2001 (May 22 & 24 screenings).
“Videoformes 2005: XXth Manifestation Internationale d’Art Vidéo et Médias,” Clermont-Ferrand, France, compilation screening moderated by Rosanna Albertini on March 18, 2005.
“Du Sonore et du Visual, 2,” In Situ / Fabienne Leclerc, Paris, France, June 2 – July 28, 2007.
“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.
"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.The Image of Fiction: International Videoart Infermental 5. Rotterdam, Germany: Con Rumore, 1986, p. 41.
Infermental: 1980 – 1986. Cologne: Infermental, 1986, p. 148.
1986 National Video Festival. Los Angeles: American Film Institute, 1986, p. 62.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo. Geneva: Saint-Gervais Genève, 1987, p. 128.
Vidéoformes '89: Festival de la Création Vidéo. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Festival de la Création Vidéo, 1989, p. 12.
IMPAKT: festival voor experimentele kunst. Program notes. Utrecht: Cultuurcentrum Ekko, 1991, p. 15.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 24, 25.
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, pp. 101, 123, 124.
Gary Hill: Sites Recited. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1993, p. 25.
Willis, Holly, ed. Gary Hill. Spinning the Spur of the Moment. Irvington, New York: The Voyager Company, 1994, p. 15.
Vischer, Theodora, ed. Gary Hill: Imagining the Brain Closer than the Eyes. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, pp. 70, 120. (In German: Gary Hill: Arbeit am Video. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 126.)
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Gary Hill: HanD HearD/liminal objects. Paris: Galerie des Archives; Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1996, unpaginated.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Viewer. Gary Hill’s Projective Installations 3. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1997, p. 94.
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, pp. 14, 69, 72.
Bélisle, Josée. Gary Hill. Montreal: Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 1998, pp. 36. 55.
Der elektronische Raum: 15 Positionen zur Medienkunst. Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Dueuschland, 1998, p. 151.
“Liminal Performance: Gary Hill in Conversation with George Quasha and Charles Stein,” PAJ (Performing Arts Journal) No. 58, Vol. XX, No. 1 (January 1998), pp. 1, 12.
Gary Hill: Video Works. Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication Center, 1999, pp. 6, 37, 38.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 69, 159, 254.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, pp. 10, 23, 28, 33.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, pp. 33, 42, 76.
Hill (scape): Gary Hill’s video screening, performance and installation exhibition. Program notes. Hong Kong: Videotage, 2001, p. 5, 8.
Lageira, Jacinto. Des premiers mots aux derniers silences in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 4, 6, 45 – 47.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. La performance elle-même in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 61, 78, 107.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 116, 117.
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. 171.
Samaniego, Alberto Ruiz de. “Gary Hill and Maurice Blanchot: Dialogues at the Threshold.” Dardo magazine, 2 (June – September 2006), pp. 146 – 179.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, pp. 68, 170 – 173.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 285, 351, 365, 456, 470, 478, 594.
Copeland, Colette. “Rooted in the Experiential: A Conversation with Gary Hill.” Afterimage, 37, 3 (November/December 2009), pp. 22.
Gary Hill: Viewer. Moscow: GMG Gallery, 2010 (in Russian and English), pp. 36, 37, 78 – 79.