Video Art Guide: Explore Iconic Video Artists and Installations

Video art is an audio and visual art form that uses projections, sound, moving images, and other recorded media art. Video art can be a live-stream recording or videotape, and artists can present video art in art galleries and site-specific video installations.

Early video cameras allowed artists to capture footage and turn it into art. Unlike film or television, video art does not necessarily rely on actors, plot, or dialogue. This twentieth-century art form paved the way for the use of video in today’s contemporary art. Analog videotapes gave video art its name, and today’s digital video art developed out of the original video art movement. The Internet now makes video and new media artworks more accessible and popular.

Video technology became commercialized in the 1960s, paving the way for this newer art form:

• 1960s and 1970s: The twentieth century saw many technological advancements, including videotapes. Once limited to corporate broadcasting, videos became accessible for public consumption. Korean-American artist Nam June Paik was one of the first artists to explore the potential of television sets as an art form. In a 1963 German exhibition, he placed magnets near television sets to show how they warped the TVs’ images. In Europe, Berlin-based artist Wolf Vostell’s Heuschrecken (1970), a video installation that featured 20 monitors, garnered attention.
• Late twentieth century: Video art continued to evolve and became more engaging and interactive. American artist Bruce Nauman’s Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up, and Face Down (1973) showed how editing could dupe viewers into believing a man was sinking through an actual floor. In Jeffrey Shaw’s Legible City (1989), participants steered a stationary bike through a virtual tour of Amsterdam, New York City, and Karlsruhe, Germany. The moving images adjusted with the pedaler’s speed and movement of the handlebars.
• Post-millennium: Video art shifted with the advent of digital technology. After 2000, the medium took on a performance art aesthetic: Video artists could record themselves, document eccentricities, and share footage more widely. In many video installations, artists considered the relationship between the camera and the potential of video technology. Kate Gilmore’s Anything (2006) showed the video artist piling up chairs in her attempt to reach the camera staring down at her from above. The new media and theater company Fake Friends often perform on stages while video cameras capture their every move in real-time and project it onto larger screens that act as the theater’s scenic design.

While video artists employ some combination of moving images, sound, and video technology, the characteristics of this unique art form can vary. Artists can use the medium politically by creating messages and graphics to connote an idea or philosophy. The movement has made room for durational art: Andy Warhol’s Sleep (1963) was nothing more than an intimate, single shot of a friend sleeping for five hours and 20 minutes. TV monitors also became the raw materials for a sculpture. In TV Cello (1971), Nam June Paik stacked three televisions to simulate a cello that avant-garde musician Charlotte Moorman could sit behind and “play” with a bow.

Artists continue to create video art across the globe. Notable artists and installations include:

1. 1. Douglas Gordon: A leader in the video art world, the Berlin-based Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, like Warhol, played with durational pieces. His career-launching work 24 Hour Psycho (1993) slowed down Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho to two frames per second, making the film last 24 hours and provoking questions about authorship behind iconic works.
2. 2. Pipilotti Rist: Experimental film and video artist Pipilotti Rist is known for her feminist art. The Swiss artist’s video installations show women challenging gender norms through acts of violence. Ever is Over All (1997) depicts a woman using a flower-shaped hammer to bash car windows, and Sip My Ocean (1966) features women swimming in the domesticity that disempowers them, including teacups, TV monitors, and other household items.
3. 3. Marina Abramović: Serbian artist Marina Abramović also considers gender in her works. In Rest Energy (1980), Abramović held the grip of a bow as her creative collaborator, German artist Ulay, placed an arrow on the bow and drew it taut, holding it there for over four minutes. The daring piece was built on trust and was heightened by Ulay and Abramović placing microphones on their chests to record their quickening heartbeats. In her retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), The Artist is Present (2010), Abramović was recorded sitting before strangers in silence; at one point, Ulay unexpectedly sat before her, bringing tears to her eyes.

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