Video Library

In the 1980s and 1990s, just as photography and video were becoming more widely accepted as significant mediums within the visual arts, advances in technology made it easier to produce and edit videos. As a result, this period saw a surge in contemporary artists' embrace of the single-channel video (and, eventually, complex multichannel installations, some of which are found elsewhere in the exhibition). This section of the exhibition includes a number of these single-channel videos by artists who work almost exclusively with the medium and others whose practices include a variety of approaches and mediums. Although their work may be straightforward and even understated in its presentation—shown on a simple monitor or perhaps projected onto the wall—many artists employing video during this period nonetheless experimented freely with its technical aspects (like framing and editing) and investigated in depth its use in popular culture. Some appropriated their imagery directly from television and film while others shot their own footage, often borrowing the forms and techniques of a familiar genre, such as documentary, pornography, or home video.