Associação Cultural Videobrasil

Gary Hill is one of the artists who better understood and more expertly promoted the integration between art and new technologies. Starting his career as a sculptor, in the 70’s Gary Hill explored the possibilities of video in Woodstock – at a time when the decentralisation of production and the possibility of independent creation in alternative communities was discussed. Hill has delivered a consistent and impacting output, in which word and image combine and confront each other, provoking and creating new meanings. A programme of 25 videos, three installations, a performance with the participation of singer Paulina Wallenberg-Olsson and a lecture make up this selection specially prepared for the 13th Videobrasil, representing distinct periods of the American artist’s career. The works include the recent installation/performance "Remembering Paralinguay", presented in Brazil for the first time, harking back to childhood and to fantasies.

Born in 1951 in California, today Hill lives in Seattle, Gary Hill also promotes a stimulating combination of media, in which communication with the spectator/participant is immediate. In the 90’s, for instance, the author participated of a multimedia performance by choreographer Meg Stuart and the dance company Damaged Goods. Literature, philosophy, as well as careful technical work, come together in the oeuvre of this artist, to whom machine and technology – invisible to the spectator – become essential working tools.

Up-to-date despite his twenty-year-old career, Gary Hill is today one of the main references to artists who have been thinking about time and the word. The videos presented, covering a period from the end of the 70’s to the 90’s, explicit Gary Hill’s constant concerns. Tongue and language are the elements in "Ura Aru", in which words – legible both from left to right and from right to left – are compared to the structure of Japanese Noh theatre. Or "Primary", in which the artist’s mouth takes up all of the screen, naming primary colours that also alternate in the monitor.

In the three installations – "Remembering Paralinguay", "Wall Piece" and "Remarks on Color" – themes such as Wittgenstein’s philosophy and certain existential doubts are translated into environments capable of not only harking back to memory, but also of sparking sensations. "Remarks on color" will be presented in a Portuguese language version (it has been shown both in English and in German).

In a moment when the speed imposed by technology also infiltrates art, Gary Hill’s show is a very good opportunity to observe how they can be used as key-pieces, contributing to the "feeling" of the spectator, so essential in an age of interactivity.

ASSOCIAÇÃO CULTURAL VIDEOBRASIL, "13º Festival Internacional de Arte Eletrônica Videobrasill": de 19 de setembro de 2001 a 23 de setembro de 2001, p. 76 e 77, São Paulo, SP, 2001.