Video Art

by Michael Rush

This book is the first detailed overview of an art form born less than forty years ago and now ubiquitous internationally. Made possible by the introduction of the Sony Portapak in 1965, video art has moved from brief showings on tiny screens in alternative art spaces to dominance in international exhibitions and artistic events, in which vast video installations sometimes occupy factory-size buildings or video projections take over the walls of an entire city block. The story of video art embraces all the significant art ideas of recent timesabstraction, conceptual art, minimal art, performance art, pop art, photography, and moviesthanks to the power of the computer. Video has been used creatively to extend, repeat, fast-forward, retard, and speed up time, as well as to cause it to stop. Abundantly illustrated with frames and sequences, Video Art offers a history of the medium seen from the multiple perspectives of its early practitioners, through the vast array of conceptual, political, and lyrical installations of the 1980s and 1990s, to the present revolution of digital technology. The idea of using the video camera as an extension of the artist's own body was first seen in the work of artists such as Bruce Nauman and Martha Rosler in the USA, VALIE EXPORT in Austria, and Hannah Wilke in Germany, and has continued to the present day, with work by Steve McQueen in Britain and Pipilotti Rist in Switzerland, among others. Video art has also produced new narrative forms, from nonlinear autobiographies to futuristic fantasies, from defining the political to redefining the sexual, as exhibited in the work of Bill Viola (USA), Inigo Manglano-Ovalle (USA/Spain), Marcel Odenbach (Germany), and many others. And in the postmedium age, artists from Pierre Huyghe (France) to Rodney Graham (Canada) and Lynn Hershman (USA) are currently exploring the hybridization of technology, in which video is combined and recombined with other materials, often in interactive installations. 383 color illustrations.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Film, Photography

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 2003

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reads more like an encyclopedia of video artists than a probing analysis of the medium. Rush provides energetic examinations of specific artists and their works, but I was left uncertain of what to make of the movement/artform as a whole. He mentioned several themes in the introduction of the book but they were never really expanded upon. There are a lot of really nice stills included in the book, though.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The images and short descriptions of hundreds of video projects make this book a useful reference, especially if you want to show a lot of still in the classroom. However, the text is exceptionally superficial and fails to place work in either historical or a critical perspective (let alone both). Worse, Rush makes sweeping assertions that are really personal curatorial judgments that write off whole areas of video practice. He occasionally seems more like a video art trendspotter or art fashionista than a critic.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite help for someone who start learning about video art.
it gives you information and some perspectives from some artists's artwork.

[Mills College Library]

702.81 R953v 2007

[Michael Lew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the wide field of video art (as shown in art galleries, art centers, art fairs and museums of modern or contemporary art) with lots of stills (photos taken from the pieces themselves with the authorisation of the artist).