Hill
Gary Hill
Mouth Piece, 1978
Exemplaire N° Edition 7/30 + 5 AP
Courtesy : l'artiste & Galerie In Situ-fabienne leclerc, Grand Paris
The video work Mouth Piece is based om two superimposed picture planes. The rear partially shows the lower half of a face, with the mouth at its center. The front graphically depicts a pair of red, electronically generated lips that move as a transparent motion in picture against a violet background.
The mouth on the rear static plane forms a kiss and 'kisses' the red lips going past it from above to below.The kisses are accompanied by appropriate sounds, and after four repetitions, the rear mouth vibrates its lips, following which it sticks out its tongue to the sound of a drawn-out "ah'".
Now the sequence of the moving image changes, first by vibrating parallel to the fluttering of the lips and to the sound made by the expressed air and subsequently parallel to the subsequent guttural sound, thus forming interferences that trigger a reversal of the direction of movement. This three-part sequence then repeats itself four times.
With his video work Mouth Piece, Hill explores elementary articulations, using the possibilities offered by the video medium to create visual correspondences between the body and electronics forms.
Catalogue Gary Hill, Selected Works + Catalogue raisonné, edition Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002