Video installation is a contemprary art form that combines video technology with installation video, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience.People are sexually aroused by pictures, videos and sculptures, they break pictures and sculptures, they mutilate them, kiss, cry before them and go on journeys into them, they are calmed by them, hypnotized by them, influenced by them, elevated by them and are moved to the highest levels of empathy and fear by them.
Bill Viola
Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist and is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and aspects of consciousness. The Messenger is one of Bills works that has caused controversy it shows a image of an naked man. It is the images that are argued about in the Church not only because of what he shows, The video shows a man in deep water with the water being the background as the man emerges from the depth of the water and rises to the surface, as this happens you are almost hypnotized by the simplicity of the man emerging from the water, the man looks blue and as he comes up you can see the pattern of the water caused by the light on him, this then suddenly turns half into red/orange color which almost shocks you which I found made me sit up while watching it, the message can be interpreted in different ways one being that the man is pure in the water (the water representing the womb) and when he comes up for air (coming into the world) he doesn't look as pure and almost satanic, then after he slowly goes back to the bottom of the water (representing death). Over all I liked this piece and thought it was very powerful and can see why the church would be unhappy with it.
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is an American design,landscape architect, preformer and installation artist. He began as a poet in the late 60's then he transformed himself into a performance and video artist using his own body as a subject for photography, film, video and performance being known for some works being extremely controversial, transgressing assumed boundaries between public and private space, and between audience and performer. One of his works that I liked 'Seedbed', In the piece there is a wooden ramp that has merged with the floor. The ramp extends across the width of the room, beginning roughly two feet up the side of one wall and slanting down to the middle of the floor. In is believed in his original performance of the piece Acconci laid hidden underneath the ramp at the Sonnabend Gallery and masturbated. Acconci's spoken fantasies about the visitors walking above him were heard through loudspeakers in the gallery. I found this disturbingly interesting and showed some of the things that goes on inside Vito's head, most of which very controversial.
Dan Graham
His work often focuses on cultural phenomena, and incorporates photography, video, performance, glass and mirror structures. He lives and works in New York. In his performances and the videos, he explores the relationships between bodies, language, and subjectivity, often manipulating the temporal experience of space. A work of his that caught my eye was a fifty-two minute video that explores the religious and spiritual tendencies underlying the American obsession with rock music, this was called 'Time Delay Room', The video is a present-time medium which has images that can be simultaneous with its perception of or by its audience. Its not like film which has to be edited in a way and doesn't represent something in the past but something happening in the present, this keeps the viewer in present reality and makes them a spectator instead of making them feel detached and this is one of the things which I personally think makes this piece stand out and separates it from other installations. The use of the cameras and screens is very smart in order to achieve this effect or experience I should say.
Vito Hannibal Acconci is an American design,landscape architect, preformer and installation artist. He began as a poet in the late 60's then he transformed himself into a performance and video artist using his own body as a subject for photography, film, video and performance being known for some works being extremely controversial, transgressing assumed boundaries between public and private space, and between audience and performer. One of his works that I liked 'Seedbed', In the piece there is a wooden ramp that has merged with the floor. The ramp extends across the width of the room, beginning roughly two feet up the side of one wall and slanting down to the middle of the floor. In is believed in his original performance of the piece Acconci laid hidden underneath the ramp at the Sonnabend Gallery and masturbated. Acconci's spoken fantasies about the visitors walking above him were heard through loudspeakers in the gallery. I found this disturbingly interesting and showed some of the things that goes on inside Vito's head, most of which very controversial.
Dan Graham
His work often focuses on cultural phenomena, and incorporates photography, video, performance, glass and mirror structures. He lives and works in New York. In his performances and the videos, he explores the relationships between bodies, language, and subjectivity, often manipulating the temporal experience of space. A work of his that caught my eye was a fifty-two minute video that explores the religious and spiritual tendencies underlying the American obsession with rock music, this was called 'Time Delay Room', The video is a present-time medium which has images that can be simultaneous with its perception of or by its audience. Its not like film which has to be edited in a way and doesn't represent something in the past but something happening in the present, this keeps the viewer in present reality and makes them a spectator instead of making them feel detached and this is one of the things which I personally think makes this piece stand out and separates it from other installations. The use of the cameras and screens is very smart in order to achieve this effect or experience I should say.
