Out-of-Sync: The Paradoxes of Time

Just read about this exhibition in Luxembourg from an email I received from E-Flux. Sounds pretty cool! There's a pretty good list of artists to research if you're looking for inspiration.


Artists
Manon de Boer, David Claerbout,
Tony Conrad, Valie Export,
Dan Graham, David Lamelas,
Marco Godinho, Laurent Montaron,
Bruce Nauman, Anri Sala, Hiroshi Sugimoto

Show description:
The Out-of-Sync exhibition broaches the sweeping issue of the place taken up by the dimension of time in the visual arts from a specific angle: it is concerned with works in which several temporalities coexist, overlap, contradict one another, thus developing a paradoxical relationship to time. Through this interest in what the philosopher Elie During, in his recent book Faux Raccords, calls "times out-of-tune" ["les temps désaccordés"], the works brought together in the show are not meant to illustrate or define the notion of time. On the contrary, they offer us an experience of its elusive nature.

The time-related figures of non-synchrony, disjunction and delay play a significant part in works produced in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their development went hand-in-hand with the rise of the moving image in the visual arts, marked by the emergence of video and the growing use of film by artists, together with the busy dialogue struck up between the various art disciplines, focusing in particular on questions of time and process. The Out-of-Sync exhibition brings together a series of key works from that period, linked, dialogue-like, with more recent works illustrating the topicality of this question in contemporary artistic practices.

The matter of recording is central to the show. By way of straightforward techniques, the works on view in Out-of-Sync highlight the way the recording of time and its recreation may give rise to unconventional temporal forms. The installation Present Continuous Past(s) (1974) by Dan Graham is emblematic of this approach: using a video system which retransmits a picture of the exhibition area with a lapse of a few seconds, it offers us a perception of an "extended present time". A similar time-frame is conjured up by Laurent Montaron's Melancholia (2005): taking the form of a Space-Echo a musical analogue device designed to produce echo and reverberation effects displayed like a bas-relief in a pierced niche at the base of a wall, the work presents our eye with the ever-changing loops produced by its magnetic tape.

Another important aspect of the exhibition, underscored by the title Out-of-Sync indicating a discrepancy or lapse between sound and image is the place taken up in it by the sonic and musical fields. Bruce Nauman and Dan Graham have regularly compared the dimension of time in their early works with the musical output of composers like Steve Reich, whose "phasing" technique, based on the superposition of several identical lines of sound played at slightly differing speeds, foreshadows the use of a time delay in pieces like Bruce Nauman's Lip Sync (1969). This interest in complex forms of time possibly suggested by the musical fields occurs, in particular, in the activities of Manon de Boer, several of whose films take as their point of departure musical works such as John Cage's 4'33" and Béla Bartók's Sonata for Solo Violin Sz. 117, as well as in works by Anri Sala, whose video diptych After Three Minutes (2007) plays with the clash between the beat of a cymbal lit by a stroboscopic light and the frequencies peculiar to video recording.

Gary Hill Documentary

The documentary began by introducing a very interesting concept of the artist Gary Hill: the belief that video an image-less medium, and simply a method of thinking out-loud. This becomes incredibly evident in his work as the viewer is often unable to comprehend his imagery because of the short amount of time that the audience is given in perceiving context. The image is also often neutralized by other elements like dull uniform colors and scenes lacking much depth or detail. Outside elements affecting the understanding of the image include alternating frame lengths that seem to compound and then slow. The most influential piece of his was the division of the separate camera views based on the concentration on the various parts of his body. Though he cited it as not far unlike a crucifixion, it was arranges more like a deformation of the subject or perspective. The piece depicting the "panorama" of the body was similar in its effort to use not only composition of the completed form: the screens, but also evidences of time to mimic symmetry. Later, he seems to carry this idea of miscomprehension into his use of language in his films, or even the development of language without meaning. There is a development of doubt in the image: subjects may often appear realistic but are still quite anonymous; which appears to serve as a way for the viewer to focus on their own tangible sense of time and space.

Gary Hill documentary

One of my favorite pieces from the Gary Hill documentary was Meditation, the one in which there is narration, a stereo, a hand, and sand. The materials he used in the video were quite simple. An aerial view is used throughout the entire video and their was probably no editing done to the video portion of the piece. The language Hill uses is also very simple. I liked how the piece had different stages of comprehension, in the beginning and then again at the end. The narration seemed to correlate with the actions of the hands. As more sand was added, the more the sound was altered and was taken to a new "place." As well as the sound, the sand itself physically moved by the action of the voice, and there was an interaction between how one action changed the other action. By the end, the voice is seems like it is buried because of the amount of sand that has been added to the speaker.

I found most of Gary Hill's pieces to be engaging, all having to do with his combination of language and image - however the one piece most people probably won't like (Incidence of Catastrophe) - is definitely the least accessible piece. Because the language is nonsensical is it harder to draw meaning, as well as the very strange (in my opinion) images in the video.

Gary Hill Documentary

The language that I received through Gary Hill's Documentary occurred to me on 3 levels. An emotional level where his works created a mood or theme, a visual level where the actions of the works effected my view, and the actual verbal language which effected how I heard the piece and interpreted it.

I found that in the pieces where he established a language or inverted our natural language, there was a point where I found it to be natural in that flaws and literacy were part of the learning process. I found it interesting to hear the girl struggle through higher level books because each word that was mispronounced or sounded out seemed to take on it's own persona. I started to go over the meaning of the original word and recreate a meaning for this mutation of the language.

I did not enjoy his nonsense piece because I found conflict between the imagery and what was occurring verbally. I did not understand why he had chosen to act as if he was incapacitated to create this scene and I wish it could be revised in a more appropriate manner.

I liked how in some of his pieces he assigned a syllable or word to an image or a cease in time. For example, in the piece where he slammed against the wall and said a word each time he did so, it interpreted to me as the struggles to create the perfect sentence and to carefully choose your words without wasting time and breath. It gave me good insight to the difficulties in the physical and mental articulation of a sentence, particularly in youth where language and grammar are just comprehended.

I enjoyed the pieces that conveyed motion and time. The piece that showed simultaneous pictures in a sequence was interesting because I had never quite noticed that quantity seems to slow down the cadence of time. I also felt that there is rhythm and almost like a beat to his works that involved time. One thing that was of interest to me is the ephemeral side of an image. In the simultaneous video piece, I felt that each moment was a snippet of information and wouldn't occur the same twice, so I watched intently.

Overall, I enjoyed Gary Hill's attention to the moment and the mutation or articulation of language.

Gary Hill Documentary

Gary Hill's documentary helped inform and inspire my work in video, which is a new and strange medium for me. I really contemplated his statement about video being of a reflexive nature, like a seance, and a circuit that allows you to think out loud. He exclaimed that, in his work at least, that video is not sound, not light, not image, but of some new kind of texture.

In several of his works Hill worked with strobe lights which I actually found particularly hard to watch at times. He also uses himself as an interactive part and language. The strobe light seemed to help capture the similar rhythm of the language and the movement applied. The language is often used but often very obscured, which seemed to be consistent in the overall context of all the work in the documentary.

I found Hill's interest to be mostly involved with behavior and to obligate the viewer to have to think by involving and playing very complex ideas and metaphors. I really enjoyed his ideas of comprehension and perception, and I believe that Gary Hill does a excellent job of exploring and conveying the mysterious, the unconscious, and "the edge".

Gary Hill Documentary

I really enjoyed this documentary and his work for the most part. The way in which he utilizes language to create double meanings and rhythmic tones in his work is really interesting both aesthetically and conceptually. I really enjoyed the first video that was shown for the reason that a rhythm was created by the reverberations of his voice which was creating an almost frantic mood in the piece. The way in which he explained it also made the video much more engaging in my opinion; he said that in creating this video he wanted “not sound, not light, not image but a new kind of texture.” Another one that I found particularly engaging was the one in which five frames were placed next to each other on the wall; each frame was playing for an equal amount of time but the flipping between the screens made time lapse in a rhythmic fashion, where even the noise within the piece became mesmerizing. The space in which this piece was placed made it mesmerizing as was the lapsed experience of time. My favorite piece of his is Mediations. I think the integration of sound and image being controlled by his voice is beautiful. The reverberations of sound seen through the sand is such a strong image that speaks to his use of language in his work.

Gary Hill Documentary

Overall, I found his work to be very interesting with the exploration of language and speech. My favorite piece was when he juxtaposed different images for 1 frame and how they morphed the viewer's perception of time. I also found his use of multiple screens and having them interact create a whole new experience than all on a single screen. As for his studio space, I found it strange that he likes working in a bunker like condition with no windows or sound. I couldn't imagine working like that. I would lose track of the days and time, yet maybe that is how he can work so productively by not having outside stimuli mess with his sleep/living patterns.