Final Project Video Responses

Peter Campus utilizes the technique of green screen and double images to convey his art. The new filming and video technologies at the time allowed him to manipulate the way his viewers perceive the work. More specifically, in his video titled “Three Transitions”, Campus is seen painting over his face to then reveal a different face of his underneath. He also burns a piece of paper with a moving image of his body on it. His videos prompt me to reconsider the perspectives in which art witnessed by creating a fantasy version of the unexpected.

Joan Jonas explores the movement and expressions of the human body. Early in her career, she made a work filming her friends walking around and frolicking in various locations. Jonas shows human nature to play through adults running with sticks and painting on the natural earth in the piece titled “Song Delay”. There is also a video that showcases individuals using instruments and improvising on the steps of New York buildings. Her skill has taught me that art can be recognized and developed in common everyday tasks. People can easily get caught up in the fast pace of the world and lose touch with their playful, natural side.

Bill Viola is referred to as one of the most well-known visual artists. Each piece is intended to be continuously interacting with the viewer and stimulating their senses. The artwork called “Three Woman” showcases a woman looking back at the onlooker before turning around and walking through a wall of water. This conveys an eerie feeling and proposes many questions to be considered. Viola’s projects are made to have different interpretations and push the boundaries about what art is and what it can be.

Gary Hill experiments with the ideas of language and how the viewer could read and listen to his videos. The video titled “Mediations” showcases a speaker with Hill’s voice coming through. There is then a hand seen that continues to pour sand over the speaker until the end of the video; his voice comments on the sand and he manipulates the English language through using homonyms and metaphors to relate to the action seen. Gary Hill expresses the strong influences that sound has with in an artwork and how language can be interpreted in many ways.

Tacita Dean films videos for the purpose to create a beautiful image and convey important messages that would be different for each specific viewer. In her art “The Green Ray”, she films a sunset and speaks over it, explaining her fascination with the phenomenon of a green ray that would appear on the horizon for a few seconds. She states how, “looking for the green ray became an act of looking itself, about faith in belief about what you see”. Her videos emphasize how observing an image is art in itself. Dean’s work embodies the wonder and forces an experience for the onlooker to endure.