Video Installation
PSYCHO architecture
Matt Mullican is an American artist whose work is concerned
with systems of knowledge, meaning, language, and
signification. He loves to demonstrate the relationship be-
tween perception and reality, between the ability to see some-
thing and the ability to represent it, which may be similar to
the nature of his audience. For instance, Psycho
Architecture (shown above) uses the style of two TV screens,
each with headphones to engage the viewer to a more personal
and de-tailed level. One channel follows the artist moving
around his studio - in a near slap-stick manner studying its
contents at nose range, while the other is filmed through
Mullicans point of view. Though this demonstrates the trait
of in-tense scrutiny that curiosity may provoke, it does not
provide any fruitful understanding, hence is a non-narrative
as there is no story to it, but rather, a type of experiment
known as an avant-garde. In this piece, Mullican uses the
technique of having multiple screens which allows the audience
to view the actions from different viewpoints and uses the
technology of television monitors coupled with personal
headphones/speaker which give the audience more of a
connection with what they are watching. Mullicans work is
similar to that of Marie-Jo Lafontaine because they both use
the technique of having multiple screens to show their work.
Out of all the video installations this will relate to my
ideas the most as there would be two monitors at maxi-mum with
chairs, and my animation will be displayed on a loop.
WORLD dance PSYCHO 24
Much of Gordons work is seen as being about memory
and uses repetition in various forms. He uses material
from the public realm and also creates performance
based videos. His work often overturns traditional uses
of video by playing with time elements and employing
multiple monitors. Douglass work often overturns
traditional uses of video by playing with time elements
and employing multiple monitors, much like Marie-Jo
Lafon-taine and Matt Mullican. One of his best-known
art works is24 Hour Psycho (1993).The work consists
entirely of an appropriation of Alfred Hitchcocks1960
Psycho slowed down to approximately two frames a
second, rather than the usual 24.As a result it lasts
for exactly 24 hours, rather than the original 109
minutes. The film was an important work in Gordons
early career, and is said to introduce themes common to
At first glance, some installations may resemble traditional his work, such as recognition and repetition, time and
craft based sculpture or the more modernist assemblage art. memory, complicity and duplicity, authorship and
But this is an illusion. Installation art effectively inverts authenticity, darkness and light.
the principles of sculpture. Whereas the latter is designed
to be viewed from the outside as a self-contained arrangement
of forms, installations often envelop the spectator in the
space of the work. Dance the World! Marie-Jo Lafontaine is an
installation, film and extraordinary montage depicting four
dances, and in these films, five women are engaged in the
movements and rhythms of the tango, the flamenco and oriental
dance. Hence, Dance the World! Not only becomes a metaphor
for desire and violence, but also a clarification of the
female condition, her power and her freedom, transcended by
sensuality, the human body and passion. This film, however,
is not only carried by sensitivity. In fact, the most
constant element in this film can be found in the mirror that
overhangs the room where the women are dancing and which
periodically appears as a symbol of the film within the film;
filmception, as it were. The mirror requires an exploration
of the image as an illusion of infinity. Behind the rich
passion, the mythical dance, these timeless women and also
their terrestrial condition, there is the restrained passage
from black-and-white to colour, from static image to moving
image, the rotational motion of cinema and finally, the
soundtrack, which engenders an outline of the artists poetic
resonance In short, its an expedition into appearances on
film, which, suddenly, becomes an illusory game about the
nature of illusion itself. In this piece, Marie Jo-Lafontaine
uses the technique of multiple screens displayed around the
room to create the feeling of vastness and she uses the
technology of image projectors to be able to display her
work.
At first glance, some
installations may resemble
traditional craft
based sculpture or the more
modernist assemblage art. But