Projection: the new trend at Prospect 71
Studio International, Dec. 1971, v. 181, no. 940, pp. 258-261
Prospect 71, an important showcase of avant-garde art in Duesseldorf, calls attention to the trend of using the projection of slides, video, film and photographs as a transition from conceptual art to projection art. Projection, according to the author, reveals the abstract work of conceptual art as a "visible, lived experience"(258), the result of a phsyical act. Everyday acts are transformed into a rhythm of light and shadow. Projections also require a degree of concentration on the artwork itself that fights against the many distractions at an art show and a commitment to the duration of the work that makes time concrete. However, he insists that stills and slides are often better at addressing new modes of perception because the mechanical aspect of representation is not disguised. Using film could be a rejection of the status of the canvas as a "'saleable object'"(261), but films are also a more accessible commodity, as galleries offer them for rental (the author uses the word film to describe works which are in fact labelled in the images as video). The author takes exception at the use of repetitive loops as well as pictoral records of action as both exhausting and solipsistic.
ITEM 1971.011 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Laura Grisi
Jan Dibbets
Cercles 1971 – Ulrich Rueckriem
Two Spheres – Bruce Nauman
Actual Size – Michael Heizer
Water 1971 – Klaus Rinke
Programme for TV gallery Gerry Schum – John Baldessari
Gilbert and George
Richard Serra