Video ArtReview

Video Art. Where Did It All Start?

• The 1st portable video camera was released to the general public – 1960

• Individual artists embrace Video as new and exciting medium. Video art is born – mid 1960s

Joan JonasFinding video “very magical” and imagining herself as

“an electronic sorceress conjuring the images”, Jonas

invented the name Organic Honey as an alter ego.

Nam June PaikFor him, video was the most appropriate medium to

reflect modernity. “Skin has become inadequate in

interfacing with reality. Technology has become the

body’s new membrane of existence.” “The future

is now.”

Video Art. Where Did It All Start?

• Video art movement has strong ties to Conceptual Art, Performance Art, etc.

• 20th century artists questioned the long tradition of traditional painting (i.e. started using all kinds of materials, installed art outdoors, etc.)

American Art in the 60s

• The viewers are incorporated into the work of art

• A lot of artists emphasize the use of chance and randomness in their art

American Art in the 60s• Art is very closely related to life

• Greater emphasis is being placed on the creative process and the conceptual aspect of the work

“Painterly action took precedence over the painted subject” – Michael Rush

Video, Film, TV – Main Differences

1. Video work is not a commercial product for sale or mass consumption.

2. Video art is a form of self expression

3. Artists who came to technological media from other forms often transferred their painterly or sculptural concerns to the new medium, whether film, video, or digital art

Fluxus Films1960s -70s

Fluxus films

• Short films created by artists of the Fluxusmovement between 1960 and 1970

• Fluxus – (in Latin means “to flow”) Is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s.

Fluxus films - Characteristics

• Are considered critiques of main-stream film

• Minimalist aesthetics (depict minimal action)

• Highly poetic & meditative, often with a playful streak

• Artists were interested in essentials of film and film techniques

• Fluxus artists found meaning in the everyday material of their art

• Examples: a collection of 32 short films

Nam June Paik – Video Art Pioneer

• A Korean-born artist, b 1932.

• During Korean War had to flee to Hong Kong and later Japan

• Studied music in Germany where he met John Cage andJoseph Beuys

• Started making electronic artin the 60s combining video, music, film, etc.

Nam June Paik – Video Art Pioneer

• Was fascinated with TV sets and the moving images

• In the work TV Cello, he and another artist stacked TVs on top one another, so that they formed the shape of an actual cello. When Moorman drew her bow across the “cello,” images of her and other cellists playing appeared on the screens.

Zen for Film, Nam June Paik, 1962-64, video

Fluxus film by Paik

Video Artpart 2

Avant-Garde Films1950s and 60s

- Originally a military term, the avant-garde now primarily refers to the front line in the arts. Avant-garde = experimental.

- Often characterized by the absence of linear narrative, the use of various abstracting techniques: out-of-focus, scratching on film, rapid editing, the absence of sound

- Took an oppositional stance toward mainstream culture

Avant-Garde Films

- An American artist and filmmaker born in 1928

- A leading figure in Pop Art

- Began making paintings of iconic American products and celebrities and founded “The Factory”, his studio, during the 1960’s

Andy Warhol

“Andy Warhol was naturally drawn to the movie camera…

he was not immune to fame, to say the least, knowing well

that ‘movies’ were the most alluring path to it.”- Michael Rush.

He made over 60 films between

1963 and 68 that became

classics of the underground

genre.

Andy Warhol

Screen Tests of Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol, 1964-66, videoMore tests

Empire State Building Time-lapse, Andy Warhol

Warhol’s Films from the 60s

Video &Performance Art

Video & Performance Art

Performance art was born in New York in the 60s as the

result of cross fertilization between theater, dance, film,

video and visual art.

Some examples of performance art involved:

- Live performers interacting with filmed images projected onto surfaces

- Artists performing in front of the camera in their studios

- Artists using cameras and monitors as both theatrical props and sculptural elements in their performances (Ex: Joan Jonas)

Joan Jonas – Video, Performance Art

Was born in New York in 1936

Jonas is a pioneer of video andperformance art.

She began her career as a sculptor.

By 1968 she moved into what wasthen leading edge territory: mixingperformances with props and mediated images.

Joan Jonas – Video, Performance Art

“… in my early performances I was like a piece of material, or an object that moved stiffly, like a puppet or a figure in a medieval painting…

I gave up sculpture and walked into the space…

What attracted me to performance was the possibility of mixing sound, movement, image, all the different elements to make a complex statement.”

Joan Jonas, This is My Right Eye, 1970s

Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art

Bruce Nauman – Video Artist

American artist born December 6, 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana

His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking and performance.

Walking in an Exaggerated Manner by Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman - Performance Art

An artistic genre of site-specific,

three-dimensional works designed to

transform the perception of a space.

What is Installation Art?

Is a type of installation art in which

video is an integral component.

Video Installation Art

TV Buddha, Nam June Paik, 1974, video installation

Nam June Paik

Tony Oursler

Was born in New York in 1957

Got his BFA degree at CalArts in 1979

His art covers a range of mediums: • video• sculpture• installation• performance• painting

His art explores the relationshipbetween the individual and massmedia with humor and imagination.

Coo, Tony Oursler, 2003, video installation

Tony Oursler

Open Obscura, Tony Oursler, Installation in Milan, Italy - 2011

Tony Oursler

Framing and Focushttp://vimeo.com/14577729

Shooting Film