Primary
Primary by Gary Hill
Made in 1978."Primary is a
performance video in which the artist represents and breaks down the movements
of the articulation of the spoken language by associating a colour with each
shape adopted by the mouth when pronouncing the monosyllabic word that
corresponds to it. The three words on the tape are: 'Blue, red,
green'.Primary was one of the first tapes to use spoken text as an
element for structuring images and the work itself. The Equal Time (1979) and
Black / White / Text (1980) tapes, amongst others, were also to use spoken text,
but in a more complex manner.Primary does not really analyse
pronunciation; it places speech back into its context and language into a
physical process. Gary Hill represents the physical properties of action and
sound in the same manner in Full Circle and Soundings, and electrical energy in
Electronic Linguistic.The process in Primary is taken up again in the
Primary Speaking installation and the resulting tape. The time taken to
pronounce each syllable determines the staccato rate at which images unfold; the
subjects of these correspond to the words pronounced and the abstract ideas
expressed. The test is an existential search, querying, in turn, the idiomatic
expressions of the language, the individual choices, identity, questioning and
elements of response. These elements are put on an equivalent basis with the
syllables according to their function in the construction of a future era." -
Thérèse Beyler
via Maternal
Hopi
