Desert
1985
© Nan Hoover
- Title
- Desert
- Year
- 1985
- Category
- Video
- Format
- Analog video
- Material / Technique
- Betacam SP, color, silent
- Dimensions / Duration
- 00:12:57
- Description
- “I never thought that »Desert« would be appreciated by the general public because I felt it was so slow...” (Nan Hoover) [1]
Like a mirage, the golden dunes in the video work »Desert« seem to peel themselves out of the dawn. A piece of fabric and light are the only actors with which Nan Hoover creates the illusion of a fictitious desertscape. The camera is static and no editing or sound enlivens the scenery. Only the constant change of light serves as a variable element through which the New York artist makes the passing of time tangible, and evokes a subtle play of colors and forms. In an almost somnambulistic way, the contrast between light and shadow of the sandbanks evokes intimate and abstract associations with the curves of a body. The world of thoughts and pictorial reality, inside and outside meld into one and thus, in their indistinguishability, enable the reflection of one’s own perception in a poetic way.
[1] Nan Hoover in: Rob Perrée, »Dialogue: About Nan Hoover« (Cologne: Salon Verlag, 2001), 25.
Images
© Nan Hoover