Physical Video - The Performative Body

14 May - 4 September, Media Gallery, GoMA

Physical Video, the current exhibition on show at GoMA’s Media Gallery, includes a selection of thematically diverse film and video works from the galley’s own collection in which the artists use the body as a central instrument in the creation of the work. The works, displayed on small monitors or as large scale wall projections, are thoughtfully positioned throughout the intimate ‘black boxes’ of the Media Gallery in an attempt to provide each with sufficient space to remain autonomous.  The exhibition comprises work of 15 local and international artists that use video as an integral medium or an extension to their wider art practice.

The performative body appears as the key theme of the exhibition, which is befitting of an art form with a history first unfolding through performance. Conceptual artists of the late 60’s and 70’s saw video as an intimate tool for documenting, studying and exposing gesture in their work and critiquing the institution. This is evident in the earlier works within the show including Dennis Oppenheim’s Program 2 (1970) and Program 3 (1972-74), Mike Parr and Peter Kennedy’s Idea Demonstration (1972) and Mike Parr’s Performances (1972-75), in which the artist’s carry out simple acts of repetition, endurance or risk within their own studio.

Mike Parr Hold your breath for as long as possible (still from video, 1972)

Whilst these earlier video works were made during the anti-establishment beginnings of video art, there continues to be a strong link between performance and video in contemporary art practice, even as the medium is growing ever more present in contemporary museum collections.  The democratization of video along with it’s rapid and inexpensive reproducibility continues to challenge institutional power.  Much like Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures (1997) through it’s low-fi quality and Wurm’s comical positioning of himself with everyday objects to ultimately challenge the definition of sculpture.

Some artists perform to the camera as a way to communicate wider cultural phenomena and investigate social identity. For example, Laith McGregor in Maturing (2003), draws hair over his face with his trademark biro, whilst freakishly mimicking male stereotypes in an attempt to communicate the absurdity of defining masculinity through facial hair.  Considering both the body and video art has played such a crucial role in pulling apart social norms relating to gender, race and sexuality, it is surprising that there are not more artists represented in the exhibition that have explored these notions. 

Theatrical performances using the body as an expression of culture and history dominate the larger space within the gallery.  Vietnamese artist Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba explores the effects of war on the people of his country in a captivating 13 minute video work Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam, towards the complex - for the courageous, the curious, and the cowards (2001). The piece focuses solely on several vietnamese men hauling cyclos deeper and deeper into the ocean as a representation of human flight, endurance and strength.  In contrast to Ngyuen-Hatsushiba, Shriwana Spong explores translation and video-as-archive through reconstruction and recording of past events and rituals.  In Costume for a Mourner (2010), Spong and dancer Benny Ord,  stunningly reconstruct an imagined scene from the performance of Serge Diaghilev’s Les Ballets Russes series, Le Chant du Rossignol (The Song of the Nightingale) (1920), of which no moving visual record exists.

Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam, towards the complex - for the courageous, the curious, and the cowards (stills from video 2001)

Throughout the history of video art, artists have explored the possibilities that the medium lends towards physical engagement of the viewer with a work.  The exhibition touches on the theme of the viewer’s body as performer through the inclusion of one interactive video installation, Follow Me (2010) by Pierre Bismuth. This work invites the audience to engage with projections of classic films by tracing the movement of the figure across the screen.

Physical Video exhibition is only a small survey of work which demonstrates video as a self reflexive, personal and immediate medium that allows for an intimate investigation of social identity, culture and history. The curatorial focus on the body, or more specifically, the performative body through artist-performer, theatrical performer or the viewer prompted to perform, successfully ties the exhibition together but in no way limits the thematic content of the works.  The exhibition demonstrates that performance remains a defining medium in video art and, although some of the characteristics of the medium have remained the same throughout history, its expansion internationally and into popular culture has brought video art from what may have initially seemed introspective explorations to a much broader external lens to the world.

Caitlin Franzmann