Mediations

1979

Description: The important video artist Gary Hill works with image and language as a system of signs, making their complex interrelationships visible through shifts and interpretations. In 1974, as artist-in-residence at Woodstock (NY) Community Video’s TV lab, he began experimenting with single-track videotapes and early video technology – in 1976, the works of the poet George Quasha inspired him to experiment with language.
In the poetic video composition »Mediations«, a hand drops grains of sand at regular intervals onto a vibrating black loudspeaker membrane, from which the word “voice” is heard again and again.
At the beginning of the tape, a black loudspeaker membrane is seen, which is described by the speaker. Again and again, a hand scatters sand onto the membrane, which vibrates with each word and swirls up grains of sand. At the end the membrane is full of sand, the spoken word is changed beyond recognition, and ultimately suffocated completely. Only unintelligible sounds can be heard, vibrations can be seen. Language occurs here in three forms: The recipients hear it, see it in the form of dancing grains of sand, and understand it as a description of what they see.

Images

Gary Hill, »Mediations. Excerpt from a Remake of Soundings, from the series: »Infermental 7: Epidemics«, 1979–1986, U-Matic, color, mono, 00:04:19, ZKM | Center for Art and Media.

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014