Gary Hill

The Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in Israel by video art pioneer Gary Hill.

Gary Hill (b. 1951, California)is one of the first artists to work with video as an artistic medium during the 1970s.His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions in museums and institutions worldwide, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel; Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona; and the Venice Biennial, among many others.

Even in his early work, Hill has recognized the potential of video, not only as a means of cultural critique in relation to television and cinema, but also as a tool for philosophical investigation, exploring the difference between the perception of image and the perception of sound, and their distinction from the physical. This investigation has led him to develop the phenomenological aspect of video, especially through the medium of video installation.

The exhibition will include four seminal video installations from different periods in Hill’s development:

Viewer (1995) is a large-scale video installation in which the viewer comes face-to-face with a line of Latino workers, creating an intense eye contact that gives one the illusion of physical touch.

Wall Piece (2000) is a classic Hill video in which the artist tries to recite a text while bumping repetitively into a wall.

Remembering Paralinguay (2000) is another important single-channel installation in which a woman approaches the camera, making sounds that vary between singing and primeval, animistic language.

In Depth Charge (2012), a newly created work, five monitors and a screening installation create an intimate, bizarre atmosphere. The monitors lie on the floor, showing the artist on an L.S.D. trip, while projected on the wall above is an electronically distorted image of the infamous jazz musician, Bill Frisell, who hovers as if watching over the vulnerable artist.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog including an interview with Gary Hill by Sergio Edelsztein, the exhibition curator.

Gary Hill
Kurator: Sergio Edelsztein