Individual Research
What is a Video Installation?
Sam Taylor-Wood
Still Life
Sam Taylor-Wood produces English films, is a photographer and a visual artist. She began doing fine art photography around the early 1990's. Then she started doing multi-screen video work.
In class, I watched a video installation called 'Still Life', that was created by Sam Taylor -Wood. This video installation shows the process of decomposition. There are 3 objects used in this video, they are:
- A basket
- A bowl of fruit
- A pen
Throughout the video clip, we see a bowl of fruit that gradually starts to decay. I thought it was quite unusual to have a video clip showing what happens to fruit after it is left for a certain amount of time but at the same time, I found it quite interesting as it was something different to watch and I have not been aware of how fruit looks like after a certain amount of time as I get rid of the food once I have finished with it.
At first, I didn't understand why the basket and the pen was in the video, until I thought about it and realised that Sam Taylor-Wood used these objects to show us what these items look like after the same amount of time that the fruit has been left there for. We see that the basket stays the same, apart from some of the remains of the fruit that is left on it. However, the pen stays the same throughout the video as it wouldn't be affected.
Sam Taylor-Wood
A Little Death
I watched another video installation that I watched was also by Sam Taylor and it was called 'A Little Death' which is in the same style as the other video called 'Still Life' where it was also decomposing. Throughout the video, we see a Hare gradually being decomposed. When I first watched this video, I felt a little bit uncomfortable as I didn't understand what was going on and I didn't really like what I was seeing. However, as I continued watching the video, Sam Taylor-Wood caught my attention as I wanted to see the end process of the Hare.
Both of the videos are canvas- still images and time lapse is used to make these videos more affective.
Nam June Paik
Electronic Superhighway
Nam June Paik was a Korean American Artist. He done a variety of media work and is considered to be the founder of video art. In 1974, he was credited with an early usage of the term 'Electronic Super Highway' which refers to telecommunications.
This video installation caught my attention as I saw a lot going on in it and I wanted to know what it was all about. This video shows a variety of shows being repeated on many TV screens. At first I was wondering why there were so many TV's with different shows on it, then I done some research on his work and realised that he created this type of work because when he came to The United States in 1964 he was able to go on the superhighways and when he went on it, he saw the enormous scale of the nation.
He also wanted to show how some people are obsessed with TV.
The Neon outlines and the glowing parts, used in this, shows motels and restaurants which made American's open the road. However, all the colours show us the individual states that still have their own distinct identities and cultures.
I thought this was a very creative and unique thing to do as I like all the different colours used and even though there are many things going on in his work, I was still able to focus on it as a whole.
Although this is a different type of work, I feel that Nam June Paik and Sam Taylor-Wood's work are kind of similar as both of their videos make you think about why they created these types of videos and it catches the audiences' attention.
Video Art
Tony Oursler is an American Multi-Media and Installation Artist. His art work covers different types of film work such as:
- Sculpture
- Installation
- Performance And Painting
I chose this video installation as I thought it was unusual. This video is of someone's facial features in the shape of a Frog's face. The left and right eyes are not in their right places, which makes it look a bit weird. I'm not too sure what the person in the video is saying, but I think that they're talking about different things at once. As the eyes and the speech aren't put together properly, I think that Tony Oursler created it this way so that it would catch the audiences' viewers a little bit because the whole video doesn't really make sense and I think the viewers would try and watch the video to the end to try and understand what they are saying and what is going on in the video.
Conclusion
Overall, my favourite one was 'Electronic Superhighway' by Nam June Paik. I liked this one as I thought it was very interesting finding out the reason behind the whole picture and it was creative and I liked all the colourful colours that were used in it.
The video installation that I wasn't too keen on was 'A Little Death' by Sam Taylor-Wood. This is because it made me feel quite uncomfortable watching it and I wasn't sure why that object was used to portray something decomposing. I feel that other viewers watching this video would also feel uncomfortable and would of wanted to stop watching it once they saw the Hare.
However, even though 'Still Life' by Sam Taylor-Wood had an object that was also decaying/decomposing, I felt that I was more comfortable to watch this video installation than the other one as this one only showed a bowl of fruit, a basket and a pen. I think that it was good to see the different with these different objects once they are left over time.
Nam June Paik's video was a bit similar to Sam Taylor-Wood's video in the sense that both of their videos made me think about what the actual reason behind these videos were. It made their videos more interesting.
Tony Oursler's video was completely different to the other Artists' videos as it was just of someone's facial features in the shape of a Frog's face. This video didn't interest me that much as I was getting a bit bored of it. However, I still thought it was a creative thing to do.
Conclusion
Overall, my favourite one was 'Electronic Superhighway' by Nam June Paik. I liked this one as I thought it was very interesting finding out the reason behind the whole picture and it was creative and I liked all the colourful colours that were used in it.
The video installation that I wasn't too keen on was 'A Little Death' by Sam Taylor-Wood. This is because it made me feel quite uncomfortable watching it and I wasn't sure why that object was used to portray something decomposing. I feel that other viewers watching this video would also feel uncomfortable and would of wanted to stop watching it once they saw the Hare.
However, even though 'Still Life' by Sam Taylor-Wood had an object that was also decaying/decomposing, I felt that I was more comfortable to watch this video installation than the other one as this one only showed a bowl of fruit, a basket and a pen. I think that it was good to see the different with these different objects once they are left over time.
Nam June Paik's video was a bit similar to Sam Taylor-Wood's video in the sense that both of their videos made me think about what the actual reason behind these videos were. It made their videos more interesting.
Tony Oursler's video was completely different to the other Artists' videos as it was just of someone's facial features in the shape of a Frog's face. This video didn't interest me that much as I was getting a bit bored of it. However, I still thought it was a creative thing to do.
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