In this report I shall attempt to understand the potential of video in an exhibition space as an art form. To do this I shall firstly cover what a video installation is then give a brief history of the form. Then I shall analyse two different video installation artists to enable me to answer the main objective of this report. Also, furthering my knowledge will help me make my own installation better.
Video installation is a modern art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience. From the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has increased in popularity as digital video production technology has become more easily interpreted. In our days of being surrounded by art whether its physical, visual or mental, artist have combined different types of art and visualised it toward a film format. To display or advertise their art, they have displayed it in a range of environments such as galleries and museums to an expanded field that includes site-specific work in urban or industrial landscapes. The structure of narrative is a key element used by artists. This is a main strategy used in video installation. This way, the well-known linear cinematic narrative is spread throughout the space creating an immersive ambience. In this situation the audience plays an active role of interpreting the video installation as it is difficult to understand the work of art.
William Kentridge
Arguably South Africa’s most famous artist, Kentridge is best known for the inventive process by which he draws and erases with charcoal, recording his compositions at each state. He displays animations of the looped images alongside their highly worked and reworked source drawings, which reference the post-Apartheid concerns of his native country.
One of William Kentridge’s video installation; The Refusal of Time is one of the most intellectually complex, moving, and magisterial work to date—and the first of his multimedia installations to enter the Museum’s collection. His work in all formats—drawings, video, prints, performance—deftly combines visually seductive imagery with probing explorations of the interwoven and often painful histories of science, humanism, colonialism, and globalisation. Kentridge’s installations of recent years are particularly strong in their skilful use of image, sound, moving parts, and narrative.
The Refusal of Time is essentially a room-sized, filmic machine—a mechanised Plato’s cave in which five video projections surround the viewer and the whole seems to be run by a pumping, organlike sculpture at center. Through a series of half-hour episodes, Kentridge intersperses images of antiquated devices for measuring time with animated drawings and live-action sequences. These vignettes recall a time at the dawn of the last century when Einstein’s early experiments with station clocks and telegraphs mirrored other attempts at ordering the world through measurement. They also evoke the more contemporary study of black holes, beyond whose threshold all matter may disappear forever. The spaces in which the work were exhibited were at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2013. Purchased for The Metropolitan Museum of Art with Roy R. and Marie S. Neuberger Foundation Inc. and Wendy Fisher Gifts and The Raymond and Beverly Sackler 21st Century Art Fund.
My own critical evaluation of The Refusal of Time is displayed full of suggestions of ideas, thoughts and theories, but its exact meaning remains ambiguous. That is Kentridge’s intention. “The work is an invitation to the visitor to see if they can find points of connection that overlap between their memory, their experiences and desires, and what they see on the screen and hear. It’s not as if the piece is an emotional journey plotted for an audience. That requires a cynicism in thinking on behalf of other people. And a knowledge of knowing who other people are.
Christian Marclay
Christian Ernest Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay’s work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records and turntables as musical instruments to create sound collages. He began in the late 1970s and developed independently of but roughly parallel to hip hop’s use of the instrument. Marclay has performed and recorded both solo and in collaboration with many musicians, including John Zorn, William Hooker, Elliott Sharp, Shelley Hirsch and etc. He has also performed with the group Sonic Youth, and in other projects with Sonic Youth’s members.
The Clock is an art installation by video artist Christian Marclay. It is a looped 24-hour video supercut (montage of scenes from film and television) that feature clocks or timepieces. The artwork itself functions as a clock: its presentation is synchronised with the real time, resulting in the time shown in a scene being the actual time. Marclay developed the idea for The Clock while working on his 2005 piece Screen Play. With the support of the London-based White Cube gallery, he assembled a team to find footage, which he edited together over the course of three years. Marclay debuted The Clock at White Cube’s London gallery in 2010. The work garnered critical praise, winning the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Its six editions were purchased by major museums, allowing it to attract a widespread following.
My own critical evaluation is modern physics sees time as non-linear. The idea of a single clock measuring out all our lives is a myth. After all, not all clocks tell the same time. Hours and minutes are a useful fiction, not an absolute.In fact, The Clock reveals this in subtle and seductive ways. Its rhythm is emotional. As the moods of different scenes and sequences change, time itself seems faster or slower. You slow to the pace of a stopped train or speed to the ticking of a time bomb.
Both video installation artist follow a different author theory, which makes them unique. It allows them to show a unique thought of process through art. Looking through the target audience, the demographic leans towards people with modern mindsets. People who love video installation tend to journey to Tate Moderns museum where all video and picture installation is displayed. Looking through the market research its been found that the target audience is towards ages 19-30+. At Tate Modern, 60% of respondents live in the UK and 39% are from overseas. At Tate Modern, 41% of visitors are male and 59% female. At Tate Modern, an average of 28% of visitors are on their first visit, and 72% are repeat visitors. At Tate Modern, an average of 49% of visitors are 17-34, 16% are 35-44, 22% are 45-59, 13% are 60+.
Media Production Extended Diploma 