‘1001 Boys Games was based on a poem written by the painter John Yeadon in 1983. It combines computer-generated drawings by Yeadon from his Impossible Lovers series, with animation and digital video effects in a stream of images complementing the narration of the poem by the dramatist Tom McGrath. In addition to conventional camera-originated material and artwork, a Quantel Paintbox and a BBC micro computer were used to create the hundreds of ‘cells’ featured in the work.’ …
Continue reading “One Thousand and One Boys Games (1984)”
‘Made in response to a cassette full of soundworks sent to me by David Cunningham sometime in 1981. The ones I used were titled “Voice”, “Body “, and “Rapid”. David went on to use them as different versions on his CD “GhostDance” and “voiceworks” and forgot about the versions he had sent to me-although he did use images from “The Sounds of These Words” for the front and back covers of “voiceworks”. …
Continue reading “Soundtapes (1982)”
‘A second sequence of a walking woman (a key theme in art from Duchamp to Giacometti and Michael Snow) asserts actual space, here an art school corridor, and then depicts closely related staggered shots of a woman repeatedly crossing her legs until a final glimpsed moment of voyeuristic revelation.’ Al Rees …
Continue reading “Black Skirt (1979)”
‘All concepts undergo historical change, and the concept of narrative has shifted since this piece was made. Watching an artwork concerned to open out the narrative devices utilised by mainstream film, it is interesting to ask whether what at the time it was made might have seemed a deconstruction of the structure of narrative could now be seen as no less narrative in its construction than mainstream films made today, or indeed the films it sought to deconstruct. …
Continue reading “Interplay (1980)”
“When Partridge began to explore the then new-fangled edit-suite in the late 1970’s, he incorporated all these elements and added to them the montage film tradition (suitably altered) at a time when extreme duration and the single take were still seen as defining the nature of video as against cinema. This was far-sighted in staking out the artist’s claim to, so to speak, cut and paste videotape well ahead of its commercial exploitation in advertising and television. …
Continue reading “Episodes-Interposed (1979)”
‘All these early black & white videotapes were made on 1/2 inch reel-reel open tape video recorders. Editing was achieved by roughly cueing up a player and recorder, marking with a white film-crayon, winding back as accurately as possible for a pre-roll, than engaging play. You hoped to press the edit button at the right time (or place) and that it would be releatively ‘clean’ . It was a hit&miss affair and certainly had little to do with film-style montage – …
Continue reading “Interlace”
‘All these early black & white videotapes were made on 1/2 inch reel-reel open tape video recorders. Editing was achieved by roughly cueing up a player and recorder, marking with a white film-crayon, winding back as accurately as possible for a pre-roll, than engaging play. You hoped to press the edit button at the right time (or place) and that it would be releatively ‘clean’ . It was a hit&miss affair and certainly had little to do with film-style montage – …
Continue reading “Crosspoints”
Commisioned by Fields & Frames Productions for Channel 4 TV as part of th TV Interventions Project.
“John Logie Baird invented television. He had worked in isolation for two years, partly because he could afford no help, and partly because he was terrified that his invention would be stolen. His only assistant was a ventriloquist’s dummy called Stooky Bill. Bill spent many hours under the intense light in front of various machines which were built from the cheapest materials. …
Continue reading “Stooky Bill TV (1990)”
‘Over-lighting exceeds capacity for assimilation in a 1970s video camera and images are ‘burnt’ into the surface of its tube. Here a unique property is discovered where both the passage of time and trace of that continuum are registered as one. A section of the original tape version records the image of the artist with a camera (via a mirror) panning, by stages, across the screen. Before movement the lens is covered and re-exposed after the change, …
Continue reading “Vidicon Inscriptions (1976 Installation)”
‘Over-lighting exceeds capacity for assimilation in a 1970s video camera and images are burnt into the surface of its ‘vidicon’ tube. Here a unique property is explored where both the passage of time and trace of that continuum are registered as one… In this, the original tape, one of three sections records the image of the artist with a camera (via a mirror) panning, by stages, across the screen. Before movement the lens is covered and re-exposed after the change, …
Continue reading “Vidicon Inscriptions (The Videotape 1976)”
