Stateless

Creator:

Hartney, Mick
  • Duration: 15 mins

    Year: 1977

    Original formats:

    1/2" EIAJ Type 1

    Media types:

    Video

    Type of work:

    Single Screen

    First exhibited: 1978 Gardner Arts Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton

    Technical details: Shot in black and white then colourised.

    “After some considerable time playing, fiddling and experimenting with the possibilities of video, this was the first piece of work that I thought might stand up to scrutiny by the audience. The central image of a female figure was subjected to repeated transfers from tape to tape acquiring high contrast and instability in the process, an instability I did my best to control and create. Colour was added almost arbitrarily of which I am not now proud. But I am quite pleased with the way the sound addresses the image in a critical manner, building up through the piece layers of implication. The music is by Brian Eno, also the composer of the music for Malcolm LeGrice’s ‘Berlin Horse’. Such was the dominant strain in British video art in 1977 that I was criticised vehemently for using music at all. This succeeded in steeling my resolve to try and break the strait-jacket I felt video art had been placed into.” Mick Hartney, March 2008

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