#gary hill

[epellucid]

via

[the-writer-jo]

Hill to Hatoum: Skinspace in Corps étranger

A short little analysis of Mona Hatoum's video work Corps étranger with Gary Hill's idea of "skinspace".

     Gary Hill’s concept of skinspace is an exploration of what exactly can be considered flesh, especially when in an encounter with actual, human skin. Soundings (1978) goes through the process of using and abusing an audio speaker in what appears to be Hill’s attempt to reconcile his own self with the central object and method of his other video works. He and the speaker are not at odds in the video, despite the violent nature that seems to dominate their interactions; instead it’s an endeavor of greater understanding within Hill as well as between him and his materials.

     Mona Hatoum’s Corps Etranger (1994), on the other hand, is a confrontation rather than a reckoning with the skin like Soundings. Skinspace becomes more literal and consequently more uncomfortable for the viewer. It’s one thing to think of the conceptual skin of a speaker and completely different to have an up-close experience with someone’s head orifices. Corps Etranger poses skin as simultaneously grounding and alienating. It’s more real in a way to know that skin means what it usually means in casual discussion; the epidermis and follicles and whatnot are all there. But, it’s almost vulgar how invasive the camera seems to be, an idea enhanced by its circular shape reminiscent of a medical scope. Even the supposed comfort of familiarity that comes with knowing what you’re looking at is corrupted by the fact that the video mainly focuses on the wet, the hairy, the uneasy sections of the body. 

     And a confrontation with skin is naturally going to lead into a conflict with the body as a larger entity, as the embodied separation of the two would be more obscene than any portrayal of them as one. Hatoum’s French title Corps Etranger translates to Foreign Body. Literally, it could reference how Mona Hatoum’s body is foreign and unfamiliar to the audience or perhaps since no one can see inside themselves, it’s also those things to Hatoum herself. But with the pre-established medical associations in the work, it’s important to think of the title in the context of disease. A foreign body can be used to talk about viruses, bugs, infections, and a bunch of other harmful bodily illnesses. The title could be calling the camera which is searching the body a foreign entity, a physical sickness invading Hatoum. This could further imply that the audience, as the ones watching behind the camera, are the participants or perpetrators of the “illness”. 

     Another distinct difference between Hatoum and Hill is how they use audio to convey the different thought processes of their videos. Corps Etranger is elevated beyond Soundings in terms of provocation because of the body’s more direct involvement in the making of the video. But this is also illustrated in the less direct incorporation of sound, namely voice and language. Gary Hill does speak legibly throughout much of Soundings. It’s distorted, sometimes hard to comprehend but it’s understandable and identifiably human. Hatoum doesn’t have this same sense of intelligibility with her audio. Most of the audible noise that’s not the camera’s movement is heavy breathing. The viewer doesn’t automatically know it’s Hatoum, though that would probably make the most sense. But there's a slight sense of anonymity created because a present voice would be definitive and knowable, while technically that breathing could be anyone, maybe even the operator of the camera. There’s a certain sense of primitivity associated with nonverbal communication as well as a sexuality that comes with heavy breathing in particular. All of this contributes to the amped up uneasiness that comes with Corps Etranger more so than with Soundings.

     Mona Hatoum’s skinspace is no longer something to ponder like in Soundings, but something to recoil from and maybe think about later once it’s not in front of you anymore and the confrontation doesn’t feel as overtly obscene. Soundings and Corps Etranger do both have a sense of provocation in them, because there’s an inherent oddness of a man speaking to and hitting an inanimate object. But the interpersonal physicality of an innard-exploring camera propels Hatoum’s video past provocation and into abjection, crossing the thin line that exists in any medium relating to a skinspace. 

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Something I think is also important to note, though it's not included in the main essay, is the political aspect of the body's invasion. Mona Hatoum is a Palestinian artist and with an invading body currently occupying Palestine, I don't think I need to write it out for the parallel to be visible.

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Link to Corps étranger

Warning: it's not an incredibly pleasant video

[golden-west]

[casimir0]

Gary Hill

[skowhegan]

Mel Chin (F ‘95), Nicole Eisenman (F ‘06), LaToya Ruby Frazier (A ‘07, F ‘15), Jeffrey Gibson (F ‘14), Gary Hill (F ‘96), Toba Khedoori (A ‘90), Whitfield Lovell (A ‘95, F ‘01, ‘02, ‘05), Rick Lowe (F ‘98), Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (F ‘02), Kerry James Marshall (F ‘98), Trevor Paglen (F ‘13), Shahzia Sikander (F ‘05), Kara Walker (F ‘01), Carrie Mae Weems (F ‘00), Fred Wilson (F ‘95), Xu Bing (F ‘03) Towards Common Cause: Art Social Change and the MacArthur Fellows Porgram at 40 Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago 5550 S. Greenwood Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60637 July 15 - December 19

[goodblacknews]

HBCU Lincoln University Now Offers Law Enforcement Training Academy With Goal of Community-Based Policing

HBCU Lincoln University Now Offers Law Enforcement Training Academy With Goal of Community-Based Policing

Lincoln University in Missouri has become the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to train police recruits on campus at the Lincoln University Law Enforcement Training Academy (LULET) established earlier this year. Led by Lincoln University police chief Gary Hill, the program allows its students to spend their final semester at the university doing full-time police training, in…

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[martalosada]

GARY HILL, EEUU, 1951

https://garyhill.com/

Cut Pipe, 1992, Video (black and white, sound), aluminum pipes, monitor with projection lens, three, laserdisc player, laserdisc, 8 in diameter, 20.3 cm diameter

Cutting Corners Creates More Sides, 2012, Mixed media installation with two-channel video (color, sound), in, cm

Loop Through, 2005, Two-channel video installation, silent, 48 2/5 × 27 3/5 in, 123 × 70 cm, Edition of 5

Klein Bottle with the Image of Its Own Making (after Robert Morris), 2014, Blown glass, micro video projector, media player, USB drive with media file, cables, MDF, latex paint, 22 × 15 × 15 in, 55.9 × 38.1 × 38.1 cm, Unique

[noel-fielding-web-page]

Imagine All The Bastards

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