Gary Hill American artist Country: USA

1. Biography of Harry Hill
2. Early Life and Education
3. Exploration of Image, Sound, and Language
4. Focus on Media Possibilities

Biography of Harry Hill

Harry Hill is an American artist who uses electronic imagery to explore the relationships between language, bodily perception, thinking, and emotions. He began working with video in 1973, already incorporating performance and sculpture into his practice, which continue to be present in his work to this day. Hill uses a video camera to capture actions, often performed by himself. Sometimes, the artist encloses these images in metallic structures, referencing his earlier sculptural works, which he occasionally uses as props for performances.

Early Life and Education

In 1969, Harry Hill moved to Woodstock, New York, and started studying at the New York Student League. His early works were sculptures, but in the early 1970s, he turned to audio and video, experimenting with digital image processing to create visual effects similar to abstract painting. Most of these experiments took place during the artist's residency at the Experimental Television Center in Binghamton (1975-1977). His sculptural experience continued to play a role in his video installations, such as "Hole in the Wall" (1974), where Hill broke through a wall at the Woodstock Artists Association and placed a monitor on the other side to display his destructive actions.

Exploration of Image, Sound, and Language

In the late 1970s, Hill began to explore the possibilities of combining images, sound, and language. His works often contained specific literary references. For his piece "Incidence of Catastrophe" (1987-1988), a color video with stereo sound lasting over 18 minutes, he drew inspiration from Maurice Blanchot's existential novel. In "Between Cinema and a Hard Place" (1991; Seattle, Donald Young Gallery), a three-channel video installation with 23 modified video monitors and computer-controlled video switches, the artist used an excerpt from Heidegger's "Unterwegs zur Sprache" metaphorically describing the relationship between poetry and thinking.

Focus on Media Possibilities

In the 1980s, alongside other video artists such as Bruce Nauman and Bill Viola, Harry Hill began to focus on the technical possibilities of media, aiming to create a meditative space where he could explore questions of authorship, consciousness, and semiotics.