The Past and Current Practices of Video Installation

Physco for 24 Hours?

Tears of Steel - by Marie-Jo Lafontaine (Contemporary Artist) Her monumental video sculpture, known in French as Les larmes dacier, which translates to Tears of Steel, that consists a total of 27 monitors, 6 laser discs, and 6 laser-disc players, installed in a piece of black box architecture. Of course, the style used is the use of multiple monitors.monitors and sculptures.

Douglas Gordons 24 Hour Physco (Contemporary Artist) Gordon Douglass taine and Matt Mulli- it uses only one screen, work is seen as being can. however is not in a cinabout memory and ema which is slightly uses repetition in vari- One of his most fa- different. ous forms, much like mous works, 24 Hollis Framptons Hour Psycho, con- As a result, it lasts Nostalgia (a past sists entirely of an ap- for exactly 24 hours, practitioner), where propriation of Alfred rather than the origiwe would be taken on a Hitchcocks 1960 Psy- nal 109 minutes. The journey through mem- cho, but slowed down film was an important ory and anticipation, to approximately two work in Gordons early as his first photograph frames a second, rather career (in 1993), and he took for his first than the usual 24. The is said to introduce piece of art to his last, audience may be peo- themes common to his were gradually burned ple who have watched work, such as recogaway. the film. This is a nar- nition and repetition, rative as it is using the time and memory, Douglass work often Hitchcocks work to complicity and duplicoverturns traditional set the full story and ity, authorship and uses of video by play- not mainly the instal- authenticity, darkness ing with time elements lation itself. and light as said by and employing mula Guardian Art critic. tiple monitors, much The style used is parlike Marie-Jo Lafon- tially single channel, as

Is it Really That Scary?

Of course, being the centre of this many screens and darkness would indulge any member of the audience that viewed it, which is exactly what Lafontaine wanted; to give the audience a sense of fear. All the screens run in perfect synch on all the monitors and contain various images of athletic young men in the act of training their muscles - this is in a narrative form, as it tells the story to the audience. The camera pans slowly over their faces, and documents the conquering spirit taken to the limit in this struggle with ones own body. The gym equipment emphasises the character of the torture that each man has chosen to bear man and machine become one. From this, you can tell Lafontaine loved the exploration of emotive his work, but rather, just a play on experimenting the use of technology to enhance the atmosphere, which could also be what Lafontaine set out to do for this video installation.

Two Perspectives

Belgian photo and video artist Marie-Jo Lafontaine is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary European art.
works, as stated by an expert - The peculiarity of Marie-Jo Lafontaines photographic and video work is that it exposes the absolute essence of the philosophy behind the imagery, through its emotional intensity and artistic depiction. - Alexandre Castant, essayist and art critic. In contrast with Matt Mullicans Physco Architechture, there isnt really any emotional engagement in

With carefully chosen motifs, Lafontaine continues the exploration of contradictions in Western culture, which stretches throughout her entire work, such as Dance the World! which depicts four dances, and in these films, five women draped in sensuality and awe inspiring in their gorgeousness, fervour, brutality and yearning. The possible nature of her audience who watch this may just be people who like to explore the use of multiple monitors in an art exhibition, and enjoy the creative sculpturing.

Matt Mullicans Physco Architechture (Contemporary Artist) Matt Mullican is an moving around his ferent viewpoints and American artist whose studio - in a near slap- uses the technology work is concerned with stick manner study- of television monitors systems of knowledge, ing its contents at nose coupled with personal meaning, language, range, while the other headphones/speaker and signification. He is filmed through Mul- which give the audiloves to demonstrate licans point of view. ence more of a connecthe relationship be- Though this demon- tion with what they are tween perception and strates the trait of in- watching. Mullicans reality, between the tense scrutiny that work is similar to that ability to see some- curiosity may provoke, of Marie-Jo Lafontaine thing and the ability it does not provide any because they both use to represent it, which fruitful understanding, the technique of havmay be similar to the hence is a non-narra- ing multiple screens to nature of his audience. tive as there is no story show their work. to it, but rather, a type For instance, Psycho of experiment known Out of all the video Architecture (shown as an avant garde. installations this will above) uses the style of relate to my ideas the two TV screens, each In this piece, Mulli- most as there would be with headphones to can uses the technique two monitors at maxiengage the viewer to a of having multiple mum with chairs, and more personal and de- screens which allows my animation will be tailed level. One chan- the audience to view displayed on a loop. nel follows the artist the actions from dif-

by Andy Raynes