Videograms, 1980-81
Video (black-and-white, sound); 13:25 min.
Videograms is a series of short vignettes tightly correlating spoken texts with electronically generated abstract forms. The piece is subdivided into individual sequences, each of which is numbered, although not in numerical order. Working highly intuitively using a scan processor with many control sources, the artist transforms the tabula rasa of the video screen into complex metamorphic forms that draw from what is being said in unpredictable ways. The contents of the spoken elements might be considered to be fragments from everyday life. At times the images seem to be analogous to photograms, in which an exposed object appears as a white silhouette against a black ground. Now and then allusions are made to representational objects, such as an amphitheater, which is heard in the spoken passage. The tape was created with the aid of a Rutt/Etra scan processor, a tool from the 1970’s that permits electronic forms to be modulated on-screen. Videograms and Happenstance (part one of many parts) are considered some of the quintessential works done with this instrument and expanded the idea of an “electronic linguistic.”
Broeker, Holger, ed. Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, GHCR 43, p. 96 - 99.
"Video Viewpoints: Processual Video,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, February 26, 1980. (Note: Only the excerpt numbered “06” was exhibited, and it was titled Machine Language 06.)
Image Dissector Screening Series, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, June 10, 1980.
1980 Athens Video Festival, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, October 23 – 25, 1980. (Excerpts.)
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.
“Serious Video: The Technology and its Art in the 80s,” Video Night, Artists’ Post Production Studio, Long Beach, California, March 23, 1981.
“The Electronic Gallery,” State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, April 1 - 15, 1981.
103rd Annual Daniel Wadsworth Memorial Video Festival, organized by Montevideo, Old State House, Hartford, Connecticut, June 11 – 21, 1981.
"New York Video,” Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany, July 7 – August 2, 1981.
“The 1981 Video Awards Festival,” D·Visions at Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York, New York, October 9, 10, 16, 17, 1981.
"Video Europäische Videotheken,” Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany, October 20 – November 1, 1981.
“Themes in Electronic Image Processing,” The Kitchen Center for Video, Music, Dance and Performance, New York, New York, December 1 – 31, 1981.
"Gary Hill: Equal Time,” Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California, March 28 – May 2, 1982.
Siggraph ’82, Boston, Massachusetts, July 26 – 30, 1982.
“Return/Jump: A Video Retrospective, 1979 – 82,” The Kitchen, New York, New York, October 10 – 17, 1982.
Steirischer Herbst ‘82, Graz, Austria, November 6 – 10, 1982.
“Art Vidéo Rétrospectives et Perspectives,” Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi, Belgium, February 5 – March 27, 1983.
“The Electronic Gallery,” University Art Gallery, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, March 2 – March 25, 1983.
Solo screening. Boston Film/Video Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts, March 24, 1983.
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, March 24 – May 29, 1983.
Solo screening. London Video Arts, London, England, December 8, 1983.
Solo screening. International Cultural Center, Antwerp, Belgium, December 9, 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.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, November 16 – 21, 1987.
“Estetica de la Generacion Animacion por Ordenador,” Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos, Barcelona, Spain, June 6 – 22, 1988.
1989 Salso Film and TV Festival, Salsomaggiore, Italy, April 19 – 25, 1989.
Vidéoformes 89: Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France, April 20 – 29, 1989.
39 Berliner Festwochen 1989: “25 Jahre Video-Skulptur,” Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany, August 27 – September 24, 1989.
Solo exhibition. “OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES,” Video Galleriet, Huset, Denmark and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 20 – May 13, 1990.
“Passages de l’image,” Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, September 18 – November 19, 1990. Traveled to: Centre Cultural de la Fundació, Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona, Spain, February 11 - March 31, 1991; The Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 10 – June 16, 1991; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, July 12 – October 27, 199; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, February 6 – April 12, 1992.
Japan 92 Video and Television Festival: “Prospectus for a TV Art Channel,” Spiral, Tokyo, Japan, February 1 – 11, 1992.
“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: Rétrospective de ses premières oeuvres mono-bandes,” Cinéma Lux, Caen, Basse-Normandie, France, December 11, 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.
“The Cool World: Film & Video in America 1950 – 2000, Part 2: The Unfixed Image, 1970 - 2000,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, January 30, 2000.
Solo exhibition. Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 17 – June 4, 2000 (May 23, 2000 screening).
Solo exhibition. Museo Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina, July 7 – 30, 2000 (July 15, 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 screening).
“l’écriture vidéophage – les bandes vidéo de Gary Hill.” La Compagnie, Marseille, France, May 1 – 31, 2001 (May 8 & 10 screenings).
“Videoformes 2005: XXth Manifestation Internationale d’Art Vidéo et Médias,” Clermont-Ferrand, France, compilation screening moderated by Rosanna Albertini on March 18, 2005.
“The View from a Volcano: The Kitchen’s Soho Years, 1971 – 1985,” The Kitchen, New York, NY, June 29 – August 27, 2011.
“The Invisible Force Behind,” Quadriennale Düsseldorf 2014/IMAI-NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany, April 5 – August 10, 2014.“VIDEOTANK # 11: GARY HILL,” Foreman Art Gallery, Sherbrooke, Quebec, April 15 - July 4, 2015.
"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.
Hill, Gary. Description of Videograms. Themes in Electronic Image Processing. New York: The Kitchen Center for Music, Video and Dance, December 1981, unpaginated.
The 103rd Annual Daniel Wadsworth Memorial Video Festival. Hartford, Connecticut: Montevideo, 1981, pp. 2, 11.
The Electronic Gallery. Binghamton, New York: State University of New York, Binghamton, 1981, p. 14.
D. Visions 1981 Video Awards Festival. Program notes. New York: D. Visions Gallery, 1981, unpaginated.
Video Europäische Videotheken. Munich: Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1981, unpaginated.
Siggraph ’82 Art Show. Boston: Siggraph, 1982, unpaginated.
Die Bilderwelt der Literatur. Schriftsteller arbeiten fürs Fernsehen. Graz: ORF Landesstudio Steiermark, 1982, p. 104.
Renouf, Renee. "Conceptual visualizations: Video Free America, San Francisco." Artweek 13, 23 (July 3, 1982), p. 2.
Oeuvres vidéo de Gary Hill en sa présence. Center for Media Art. Program notes. Paris: American Center, 1983, unpaginated.
1983 Biennial Exhibition. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1983, p. 87.
1983 Whitney Biennial Video Exhibition. The American Federation of the Arts Film Program. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1983, unpaginated.
The Electronic Gallery. Binghamton, New York: University Art Gallery, State University of New York, Binghamton, 1983, unpaginated.
Furlong, Lucinda. "A Manner of Speaking: An Interview with Gary Hill." Afterimage 10, 8 (March 1983), pp. 12, 13.
Lee, Thomas. "March Screening Series at BF/VF." Visions Magazine (March 1983), p. 13.
Larson, Kay. "Art: Through a Screen Dimly." New York 16, 36 (September 12, 1983), pp. 86, 87.
Taubin, Amy. "The Whitney Biennial: Video." Millennium Film Journal 13 (Fall/Winter 1983/1984), pp. 114, 115.
Video: A Retrospective. 1974 – 1984. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1984, p. 74.
The Image of Fiction: International Videoart Infermental 5. Rotterdam, Germany: Con Rumore, 1986, p. 41 & unpaginated.
Hanhardt, John G. Gary Hill. The New American Filmmakers Series 30. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986, unpaginated.
1986 SAW Gallery International Festival of Video Art. Ottawa, Ontario: Saw Gallery, 1986, p. 8.
Kolpan, Steven. "Bateson Through the Looking Glass." Video and the Arts (Winter 1986), p. 22.
2e Semaine International de Video. Geneva: Saint-Gervais Genève, 1987, pp. 63, 65, 66, 127.
De Moffarts, Eric. “Télévision: le dernier carré?: La 2ème Semaine Internationale de Vidéo à Genève.” Gen Lock 7 (December 1987), p. 11.
Pixel Art – Estetica de la Generacion Animacion por Ordenador. Barcelona: Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos, 1988, unpaginated.
Vidéoformes '89: Festival de la Création Vidéo. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Festival de la Création Vidéo, 1989, p. 12.
XII Salso Film & TV Festival. Parma: Comune di Salsomaggiore Terme, 1989, p. 81.
Video Forum Berlin Bestandskatalog. Berlin: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, 1991, p. 16.
Lageira, Jacinto. "Gary Hill. Une verbalisation du regard." Parachute 62 (April/May/June 1991), pp. 7, 8.
Sarrazin, Stephen. “Objecten die leven Spreken, Tapes die Leren Zwijgen.” Andere Sinema 104 (July-August 1991), p. 21.
Hill, Gary. "Site Re:cite." Camera Obscura: Unspeakable Images, San Francisco 24 (1991), p. 136.
Watari, Shizuko. Gary Hill – I Believe It Is an Image. Tokyo: WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, 1992, unpaginated.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 24, 25, 73, 76. (Including excerpts from an interview with Gary Hill)
Sarrazin, Stephen. "La parole aux objets." art press 165, France (January 1992), p. 20.
Gary Hill: Sites Recited. Long Beach, California: Long Beach Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 7, 25.
Mignot, Dorine. Gary Hill. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum; Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 1993, p. 108.
Van Assche, Christine and Corinne Diserens. Gary Hill. Valencia: Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno (IVAM), Centre del Carme, 1993, p. 7.
Bruce, Chris. Gary Hill. Seattle, Washington: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1994, p. 47.
Willis, Holly, ed. Gary Hill. Spinning the Spur of the Moment. Irvington, New York: The Voyager Company, 1994, p. 5.
London, Barbara J. Video Spaces: Eight Installations. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1995, pp. 22-23, 48 – 53.
Vischer, Theodora, ed. Gary Hill: Imagining the Brain Closer than the Eyes. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 118. (In German: Gary Hill: Arbeit am Video. Basel: Museum für Gegenwartskunst; Ostfildern: Cantz, 1995, p. 123.)
Lestocart, Louis-José. “Gary Hill: Surfer sur le medium / Surfing the Medium.” art press 210 (February 1996), p. 21.
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, p. 69.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. Tall Ships. Gary Hill’s Projective Installations 2. Barrytown, New York: Station Hill Arts, 1997, p. 42.
Der elektronische Raum: 15 Positionen zur Medienkunst. Bonn: Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Dueuschland, 1998, p. 147.
Gary Hill: Video Works. Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication Center, 1999, pp. 24, 28 - 31.
Rinder, Lawrence, ed. Searchlight: Consciousness of the Millennium. San Francisco: California College of Arts and Crafts, 1999, p. 65.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 68, 69, 192, 193, 194, 212, 215, 234.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 7.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, pp. 74, 75.
Hill (scape): Gary Hill’s video screening, performance and installation exhibition. Program notes. Hong Kong: Videotage, 2001, p. 5.
Lageira, Jacinto. Des premiers mots aux derniers silences in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, p. 21.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 96 – 99, 102.
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.
Barro, David. Gary Hill: Poeta da percepção, poet of perception, poeta de la percepción. In Portuguese, Spanish and English. Porto: Mimesis, 2003, pp. 10, 32, 54.
Odin, Paul-Emmanuel. L’absence de livre [Gary Hill et Maurice Blanchot – Écriture, vidéo]. Marseille: La Compagnie, 2007, p. 120.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 4, 5, 10, 24, 38, 39, 57, 73, 81 - 85, 89, 90, 101, 112 – 115, 153, 157, 185, 259, 559, 565 – 567, 597, 624.
Ramos, María Elena. Gary Hill. Caracas: Centro Cultural Chacao, 2009 (in Spanish), pp. 8.
Copeland, Colette. “Rooted in the Experiential: A Conversation with Gary Hill.” Afterimage, 37, 3 (November/December 2009), pp. 22.
6
Looking through a hole cut to be looked through, the pedestrian waited for the light to change. A construction crew was working on a foundation: brown backs, concrete blocks and precision instruments for leveling performed in a dirt amphitheater. Every so often two men would act as two nodes. Between them, a long yellow piece of metal with numbers and lines on it told them how far apart they were. One node would always let go, causing the metal to suck itself up into a tight spiral. The workers moved from location to location repeating their ritual again and again.
27
Light passed through the window as it is able to do. It had that gold-orange color that happens. It sprawled over the things in the room. A fixed gaze moved among the reflections caused by the wall of glass separating vision from pure light. A trapezoidal shape was framed by the refrigerator door. The pupils closed for a moment as the reflection glared on the chrome handle. The geometry could not keep its degrees of angle or of heat as it moved to the adjacent wall. It rounded the corner moving exponentially slower, blurring and growing dim, fading to the ambience of the hallway.
33
Asked to kiss. Couldn't engage. To open mouth was a decision too overbearing for the moment. The lips, an amphibian, directed by evolution to live on the face. Each kiss slicing its belly open, gutting it, exposing an internal network where the guts of a partner's amphibian are devoured.
83
Thought travels at one speed. Like oxygen released underwater, surfacing to mingle with its kind. Any change in this universal velocity is noticed and without delay seized. It no longer fades, merges or continues as it has. Mouth. Leg. Stomach. Hand. Testicle. Something will dispose of it producing physicality. Physicality.
24
About this room. It’s too oblong. There's too much strain on peripheral vision. The alternative is: The living room, where the stereo headphones are attached. One can sit in the chair and rock through thereness, or exit altogether, move closer to the freeway, contract a private ramp for immediate access.
41
Related movement determined by diagonally stepped solids or gliding in a shaft of space unable to change direction. Decision. Containment. Incision. Slide down against the stainless steel into a little squat and wonder about surveillance.
70
Space was defined by centrifugal light. A hollow column rotated horizontally within. Its ends at barely perceptible distances from the circular defined parameter extended and receded continuously keeping the relationship constant. Glass discs, mental condensation, formed on the ends scraping the light. The piercing sound it caused translated exactness. The cut glass refracted the enclosure of light allowing the discs to glimpse the external. The rotation of the column forced the discs out through the open shapes created by their refractions re-enclosing the space. The extracted discs used for externalism were exchanged for information needed to keep the column in motion.
39
A dense grid of cotton swabs emerged from the walls of a foyer. There were no shadows to locate the orifices from which they came. It was as if the latex had spun itself into innumerable cocoons. Drops of color saturated the tips and streamed in thin lines forming polymer pools on the floor, a delicate entrance to a think tank.
0
Contained by folded arms, the viewer faced the window holding it at bay.
7
The event was construed as an effort to stop time. There was a lot of to-do about anti-matter but nothing seemed to materialize. The organizers disappeared, leaving all present to fend for themselves.
18
A sense of place was over. Under the weight of time obstacles were few and far between. Tendencies included wishful thinking. A last ditch attempt was made toward reconciliation--a token gesture.
82
Extravagance settled in the couch. Monochromatic influence was evenly distributed over the animate and inanimate. Reostats strategically placed controlled central lighting with state of the art sophistication. The small get-together was dampened by the absence of music. Memory recollects: a long evening of arms, silver and innuendo.
12
Transaction was taking place. Paranoia emanated from every mind present. The scene was a Bauhaus of guilt. The off-white pulse vibrating in every room provided the perfect condition for compositions of celadon culture—paintings, so to speak.
99
A glimpse of possibility provided a circuitous surface for interchange. Underneath both parties knew the common denominator was a beginning and an end. The past was a stratification of high energy one-act plays. The present was tense; the future feature length.
2
The image folded in the double bind of frame and context. Permanence of the act was marginal with a perforated edge of light-heartedness. The hand reciprocated with one swift movement. Damage was negligible to the remaining back-to-back facades.
9
Extremities of particulars dilated the situation. The uncertainty of a tidal dynamic put everything at attention. A touch of sci-fi drifted in but dissipated before taking hold. One of many hand-held crystals was dropped, breaking the ice.
64
Caffeine rivers ramify, discharge. Autonomous pressures, descendants of the mind/body split, spill between the lines of a summer moiré. The sun runs in place on your face while ebony shadows cast an oriental nightmare; every breeze changes the scene.
50
The conversationalist pressed for the facts. Catastrophe was inevitable. A primal sound hermetically sealed in its skull was masked by choreographies at play between brain and tongue. The linguist experienced a separation of present tense and lost all motor skills, lapsing into nonsense. The sound rushing from its mouth duplicated that of a stream nearing a large body of water.
3
Arrangement was such that people, places and things could exist harmoniously.