Video installations.

If youre like me, when someone talks about moving art. Youre mind
probably jumps to the moving paintings from harry potter but
apparently thats not the point. So if not the aforementioned
sentient art, what is this moving image malarkey? Well as hard as
it might be to believe I have done my research, there is a large
movement surrounding the installation of moving image with galleries
and gatherings alike. So what makes something a video installations?
Well its pretty much like an art installation but instead of art
being at the core of the piece it is a moving image. This magical
medium has spawned countless creative creations. To explain more I
will refer to some examples.
So example number Uno, this is none other than Vito Acini and his
piece Command Performance, if you have ever wandered what it would
be like to be a security guard working in PC World then go no
further. Vitos Command Performance, which I will now refer to as CP
if not only for the sake of my fingers, is a pretty simple premise.
You have one person watching a video of Acini himself talking to the
camera like a un-tech savvy Amish block whos just discovered the
existence of snapchat. He issues commands like Come to me It is
your turn to play the fool. This exhibit can found in the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The way he uses video technology is revolutionary. He uses cameras
and screens to give the audience a view of each other is truly
unique and very effective. This raises a point of how we are all
being watched on Cameras like this though CCTV and how people like
to observe one another so although it seems like a gimmick it is a
very valid and deep analysis of technology. This makes the audience,
thats you guys, think about the way we use technology to spy on one
another and just like that Vito has got his point across.

The next piece is more about creating an illusion. Another pioneer

in this field is Douglas Gordons whose exhibit 24 hours of psycho
depicts the movie psycho however stretched the movie to span over

24 hours because the frames are stretched out over this time. This
instillation was created in 1993. The work entirely consists of an
appropriation of the 1960 classic movie psycho and in total it was
slowed down to two frames per second rather than the original 24
frames per second. Usually the movie lasts for about 109 minutes.
The film was an important part of gordons early career.
Gordons techniques are very simple, simply slow the movie down to
communicate different themes to his audience, which the audience are
meant to understand the difference the thing with this though is it
gives the piece a very different feeling. This is of course an unusual take on a familiar classic, it introduces many of the
important themes in Gordon's work: recognition and repetition, time
and memory, complicity and duplicity, authorship and authenticity,
darkness and light. This isnt so much about the narrative as the
film is so slowed down only the most dedicated would stand there for
24 without so much as a beanbag.
Another well-known example is Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, a British
artist most famous for her reworking legendary events from cultural
history. One of her most famous pieces of work was called Hermitos
Children shown at Tate Britain, the performance was summarised by
Adrian Searle as, The young woman who rode to her own death on the
dildo see-saw at the Sugar-Tits Doom Club and quite frankly if
that doesnt get your attention then youve given yourself away you
replicate human. Like the rest of her portfolio Hermitos Children is
surreal and sexual this is due to Marvins idea of Altermodern
which she believes her work is a reaction against standardisation
and commercialism. To be fair she isnt wrong Even though the
installation sounds quite ridiculous, art critic Richard Dormant
described as, Silly beyond words and teetered at times on the edge
of porn but once you start looking at it I defy you to tear
yourself away so in short its not unlike telly shopping.

She uses space in a very clever way as the choreographs her art and
actors to be in a specific places to aid her narrative. In the large
space she has he and some actors act out a series of events that
could be described as a narrative. This narrative is odd but its
what makes the piece worth watching otherwise its just so abstract
youd think that the Royal London Theatre wardrobe department have
been taking just a tad too much LSD. The narrative tells a story
though and this is what brings meaning to the piece of lost children
in a strange hostile world as they all die one by one.
Now to all four of those interested I am planning my own video
installation in the glamourous location of Henley On Thames at the
Red Lion hotel. So as a fellow video installer what could I as an
amateur take from these technical titans of art and video? Well the
way Vito uses technology to make the audience feel small and uneasy
I think I could bring this into my piece, I also like the way he
gives the audience a role this makes them more involved and thus
immersed. I also see Vitos courage as he challenges the very
society we are building If I could do this It would bring my work to
another level.
I would like to take the way Douglas Gordon changes the meaning of
an already existing thing by using time. Time can be powerful and I
will be sure to remember that when I am producing my own video
installations.
Now from my last artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd there are a few morals
to take into account as well as dont do drugs kids the way she
give her work a narrative, she tells a story and nothing grabs an
audience more than this. I also like the way she challenges more
conventions as she mixes there with film and art.
video installations come in many different forms, as technology
improves we are seeing more innovation and pushing of boundaries
which makes us question a wide variety of different themes and
events but such is the nature of art. Video installations will never
go away so Id go and check one out, if its isnt your cup of tea you
can just skulk off the pup instead and yes for those more keen eyed
of you; yes that is the giant bug from Starship Troopers.