The genre known as video art, is a new type of contemporary art, and a medium of expression commonly seen in Installations, but also as a stand-alone art form. Initiated by such experimental artists as Andy Warhol, Wolf Vostell, and Nam June Paik, recent advances in digital computer and video technology, enabling artists to edit and manipulate film sequences, have opened up a range of creative opportunities and drawn numerous artists into the genre. Indeed, the Turner Prize - a key indicator of excellence in the postmodernist art world - was awarded to video artists in 1996/1997/1999. See also Turner Prize Winners. The theory and practice of video art is now taught as a Minor degree subject in many of the best art schools in America.
Video art typically appears in two basic varieties: single-channel and installation. In single-channel works, a video is screened, projected or shown as a single series of images. Installations typically comprise either an environment made up of several distinct pieces of video screened simultaneously, or a combination of video with Assemblage, or Performance art. At present, Installation video is the most common form of video art, being part of the multi-media fashion for combining architecture, design, sculpture, electronic and digital art. Latest developments include the use of the Internet and computer art to manipulate film imagery and to control videos from the world wide web or remote locations. To keep up to date with the video art world, see Art News Headlines.
Video Artists
Early video artists tended to be those involved with conceptual and performance art, and experimental film. These include Americans Vito Acconci, Zeinabu Irene Davis,John Baldessari, Peter Campus, Doris Totten Chase, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman and others. Others, like Steina Vasulka (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir) and Woody Vasulka, explored the video genre itself, utilizing synthesizers to produce abstract works. Later exponents included Americans Sadie Benning, Paul Chan, Gary Hill, Miranda July, Mary Lucier, Paul Pfeiffer and Eve Sussman; the Canadians Colin Campbell, Stan Douglas, Lisa Steele, Bill Viola and Rodney Werden. European video artists include the Germans Agricola de Cologne, Dieter Froese, and Wolf Kahlen; the Poles Wojciech Bruszewski and Miroslaw Rogala; the Britons Douglas Gordon, David Hall and Gillian, the Italian Stefano Cagol, the Austrian Martin Arnold, the Swiss Pipilotti Rist, and the Spaniard Domingo Sarrey.
