Video installation

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Video installation is an art method in western contemporary art that combines video technology with installation art. The form became more widespread in the 1980s when high quality video projectors became cheaper and more reliable.

A pioneer of video installation was Nam June Paik whose work from the mid-sixties used mulitple television monitors in sculptural arrangements. Paik went on to work with video walls and projectors to create large immersive environments.

Gary Hill has created quite complex video installations using combinations of stripped down monitors, projections and laser disk technologies so that the spectator can interact with the work. For instance in the 1992 piece Tall Ships the audience enters a space where ghostly images of seated figures are projected onto a wall. The movement of the audience was the figures to stand up and approach the viewer.

Tony Oursler's work exploited the developed in the early 1990s of very small video projectors that could be built into sculptures and structures as well as improvements in image brightness so that images could be placed on surfaces other than a flat screen.

In Britain video installation developed a distinctive pattern thanks in part to the existence of regular festivals in Liverpool and Hull and public galleries such as the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford that routinely showcased the work. Sam Taylor Wood's early installation pieces are good examples where specially filmed elements are shown as a series of serial projections.

See also- Video Art

[edit] Artists working with Video Installation