Video Art

As the name clearly suggests, video art is a form of art that depends on moving-picture or video technology as an audio-visual medium. This art form emerged and gained traction when consumer video technologies, particularly videotape recorders, became advanced and readily available in the late 1960s. Visual artists started experimenting with video as a form of art almost immediately.

Video art may comprise the video, the final product, and perhaps the actual video-recording equipment as part of the artwork. In essence, video art can’t exist without the video element. Well-known video artists include Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Diana Thater and Matthew Barney.

Adrian Paci - Centro di Permanenza Temporanea (Temporary Reception Center), 2007, 16-9 video projection, color, sound, 5’30’’

Adrian Paci’s Temporary Reception Center – Hope for a better future

Video Art / 5 minutes of reading
Adrian Paci’s artwork, Temporary Reception Center (2007), is a powerful take on the political themes of displacement. Paci, an Albanian artist, captures the drama of migrants, the denied hope, and the uncertainty of life in a new environment in this art piece. With his work, the artist makes a statement on the refugee crisis …

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Lin Yilin - Safely Maneuvering across Lin He Road, 1995, performance, Guangzhou, China feat

Lin Yilin – Safely Maneuvering Across Lin He Road

Performances, Video Art / 4 minutes of reading
Lin Yilin Lin Yilin needs no introductions in the world of performance art. As one of the most well-known Chinese artists, Yilin has made a name for himself for his contemporary interventions and performance pieces that often criticize China’s extreme urbanization, modernization, commercial globalization, as well as its geopolitical conflicts. Lin was born in Guangzhou, …

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Joseph Beuys’ ambitious plan to plant 7000 oaks

Environmental Art, Installations, Video Art / 5 minutes of reading
7000 Oaks 7000 Oaks is an environmental artwork created by German artist Joseph Beuys. The artist proposed a plan to have 7000 oaks trees planted across the Germany city of Kassel, each tree accompanied with basalt stone, 4 feet high above the ground. Joseph Beuys’ objection was for the project to extend throughout the world …

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Bill Viola - The Crossing, 1996

Bill Viola’s The Crossing – Everything you need to know

Installations, Video Art / 4 minutes of reading
Background Underlying Bill Viola’s work over the past few decades has been the use of advanced media technologies for purposes of explaining and highlighting spiritual phenomena. As a result of his immersive audio and video installments and environments, the artist manages to externalize the internal realm of the unconscious, supplying audiences with plenty of space …

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Some of Vito Acconci’s most influential performances

Performances, Video Art / 5 minutes of reading
Who was Vito Acconci? Vito Acconci is one of the most influential American artists. He was a poet, an architect, and a pioneer of performance art. Acconci is commemorated in art history for his artworks, including the ones we are going to discuss in this article. Influence His artwork involved crossing the boundaries, including the …

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Bill Viola’s The raft – An image of destruction & survival

Performances, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading
What comes to mind at the mention of a raft? Naturally, many people would imagine a large water body. Using a raft to cross over water means desperation and determination to reach the other side. When Bill Viola incorporated this aspect of human struggle into his artwork, people were impressed by the story he …

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What is the meaning of Christian Marclay’s Telephones?

Mixed media, Video Art / 2 minutes of reading
Christian Marclay’s Telephones, created in 1995, was a skilfully edited arrangement of black-and-white, as well as color film clips that highlighted different subjects utilizing an array of telephones, all designed before the smartphone era that we live in today. At the time of its release, technology was just reaching its peak, which is why …

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Fischli & Weiss: The groundbreaking way things go

Installations, Video Art / 4 minutes of reading
Peter Fischli and David Weiss are two Swiss artists that have made some of the most significant, most unanticipated and funniest artworks of their generation. The Swiss duo, Fischli and Weiss’s celebrated film The Way Things Go had a remarkable influence on the way artists, curators and audiences approached and interpreted art in relation …

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Why did Nam June Paik create his TV garden?

Sculptures, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading
Why is Nam June Paik important? No one would think televisions are artistic under normal circumstances. Handy, yes. Useful, quite so. Nam June Paik, however, managed to put television sets in circumstances where he reveals their artistry. The celebrated artist is regarded as the father of video art and has manipulated television sets, broadcasted live …

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Marina-Abramovic-Ulay-Rest-Energy-feat

Marina Abramović & the arrow that could have easily taken her life

Performances, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading
It is no secret that Marina Abramović is one of the best and most audacious performance artists of all time. She was celebrated for her ability to push boundaries when it came to performance art and indeed using her body as a portrayal of meaning, endurance, and the threat of physical harm. Therefore, she …

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Nam June Paik’s legendary Electronic Superhighway

Installations, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading
What is Nam June Paik’s Electronic Superhighway? Electronic Superhighway is one of the most noted works of Korean Nam June Paik artist. It illustrates how he interpreted a diverse nation through media technology. The Electronic Superhighway is a large installation, constructed with 336 televisions, 50 VHS players, 3750 feet of cable, and 575 feet of …

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Sun-Yuan-and-Peng-Yu-Dogs-Which-Cannot-Touch-Each-Other-2003-feat

Banned: Sun Yuan & Peng Yu’s controversial dogs video

Performances, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading
The video work titled Dogs That Cannot Touch Each Other has only recently been removed from Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition series known as Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World. The video series has been met with disapproval and disparagement not only by some art critics but animal lovers and welfare organizations as …

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Marina-Abramovic-The-Lovers-The-Great-Wall-Walk-4

Marina Abramović walks China’s Great Wall only to break up

Performances, Video Art / 3 minutes of reading
Marina Abramović’s & Ulay’s preparation for the project Artists Marina Abramovic and Ulay are known in many parts of the world as the lovers whose relationship ended at the Great Wall of China. Initially, when the couple planned the trip, they intended to get married at the center of the wall. However, it was years …

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