VIDEO ART
"As collage technique replaced oil paint, so the cathode-ray will replace the canvas" (Nam June Paik qtd. in Dempsey 257).
Technologies of movement and sound started being explored in the 1960s. A group of artists began taking on most powerful mass media tool: tv. They began including televisions in their creations and installations. The symbolic birth of video art could be pinpointed to 1965 when Nam June Paik puchased a Sony Portapak hand-held video camera.
Wolf Vostell (1932-1998) -- Fluxus artist.
Nam June Paik (1932- ) -- Korean artist and musician.
Marshall McLuhan Caged (1967)
McLuhan (1911-1980) proposed that changing the means of communication changes perception itself.A Tribute to John Cage (1973)
TV Bra for Living Sculpture (1969)
Charlotte Moorman the cellist (1933-1991) wore a bra consisting of two tv sets with images changing along with the tones of the music: boob tubes.Global Groove (1973)
Intended to expose the dangers of this culturally powerful medium.Spontaneity, discontinuity, entertainment = the syntax of tv. "I make technology ridiculous," says Paik.
EAI -- Electronic Arts Intermix
Bill Viola (1951- ) -- large-scale installations of private scenes such as heart surgery, birth, death.
Nantes Triptych (1992)Shirin Neshat (1957- ) -- Iranian.
Subjects include birth and death, in triptych form, central to the European Christian tradition, but the video provokes different responses.
Turbulent (1998)Tony Oursler (1957- )
A poignant testimonial to the different status afforded men and women in her country.
The Influence Machine (2000)
An outdoor environment, London's Soho Square, turned into a psycho-landscape, with talking trees and buildings, talking heads in puffs of smoke, specters.
Works Consulted
Dempsey, Amy. Art in the Modern Era: A Guide to Styles, Schools & Movements. NY: Harry N. Abrams Inc., Pub., 2002.