Video Art Review Video Art Where Did It

Video Art Review

Video Art. Where Did It All Start? • The 1 st portable video camera was released to the general public – 1960 • Individual artists embrace Video as new and exciting medium. Video art is born – mid 1960 s

Joan Jonas Finding video “very magical” and imagining herself as “an electronic sorceress conjuring the images”, Jonas invented the name Organic Honey as an alter ego. Nam June Paik For him, video was the most appropriate medium to reflect modernity. “Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body’s new membrane of existence. ” “The future is now. ”

Video Art. Where Did It All Start? • Video art movement has strong ties to Conceptual Art, Performance Art, etc. • 20 th century artists questioned the long tradition of traditional painting (i. e. started using all kinds of materials, installed art outdoors, etc. )

American Art in the 60 s • The viewers are incorporated into the work of art • A lot of artists emphasize the use of chance and randomness in their art

American Art in the 60 s • Art is very closely related to life • Greater emphasis is being placed on the creative process and the conceptual aspect of the work “Painterly action took precedence over the painted subject” – Michael Rush

Video, Film, TV – Main Differences 1. Video work is not a commercial product for sale or mass consumption. 2. Video art is a form of self expression 3. Artists who came to technological media from other forms often transferred their painterly or sculptural concerns to the new medium, whether film, video, or digital art

Fluxus Films 1960 s -70 s

Fluxus films • Short films created by artists of the Fluxus movement between 1960 and 1970 • Fluxus – (in Latin means “to flow”) Is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960 s.

Fluxus films - Characteristics • Are considered critiques of main-stream film • Minimalist aesthetics (depict minimal action) • Highly poetic & meditative, often with a playful streak • Artists were interested in essentials of film and film techniques • Fluxus artists found meaning in the everyday material of their art • Examples: a collection of 32 short films

Nam June Paik – Video Art Pioneer • A Korean-born artist, b 1932. • During Korean War had to flee to Hong Kong and later Japan • Studied music in Germany where he met John Cage and Joseph Beuys • Started making electronic art in the 60 s combining video, music, film, etc.

Nam June Paik – Video Art Pioneer • Was fascinated with TV sets and the moving images • In the work TV Cello, he and another artist stacked TVs on top one another, so that they formed the shape of an actual cello. When Moorman drew her bow across the “cello, ” images of her and other cellists playing appeared on the screens.

Fluxus film by Paik Zen for Film, Nam June Paik, 1962 -64, video

Video & Performance Art

Video & Performance Art Performance art was born in New York in the 60 s as the result of cross fertilization between theater, dance, film, video and visual art. Some examples of performance art involved: - Live performers interacting with filmed images projected onto surfaces - Artists performing in front of the camera in their studios - Artists using cameras and monitors as both theatrical props and sculptural elements in their performances (Ex: Joan Jonas)

Joan Jonas – Video, Performance Art Was born in New York in 1936 Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art. She began her career as a sculptor. By 1968 she moved into what was then leading edge territory: mixing performances with props and mediated images.

Joan Jonas – Video, Performance Art “… in my early performances I was like a piece of material, or an object that moved stiffly, like a puppet or a figure in a medieval painting… I gave up sculpture and walked into the space… What attracted me to performance was the possibility of mixing sound, movement, image, all the different elements to make a complex statement. ”

Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art Joan Jonas, This is My Right Eye, 1970 s

Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art Joan Jonas talks about her performance “Mirage” from the 1970 s

Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art Joan Jonas at the Venice Biennale (2009)

Bruce Nauman – Video Artist American artist born December 6, 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking and performance.

Bruce Nauman - Performance Art Walking in an Exaggerated Manner by Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman - Performance Art 21, Bruce Nauman

What is Installation Art? An artistic genre of site-specific, three-dimensional works designed to transform the perception of a space.

Video Installation Art Is a type of installation art in which video is an integral component.

Nam June Paik TV Buddha, Nam June Paik, 1974, video installation