Reading Response #4

"The Never Ending Process to Communicate" is how Gary Hill defines video art.  This explanation really hit home with me.  I have often wondered, as I'm sure many others have as well, what the point of video art is?  Many of these so-called artistic expressions seem to have no point to them at all.  They tell no story, teach no moral, and sometimes fail to evoke even a strong emotion from the viewer.  What is the point?  For me, this one phrase from Gary Hill answered this mystery.  The point of video art is to attempt to communicate with the rest of humanity in a way that words or pictures can not.  People everywhere, especially artists, often struggle with the idea of identity.  For a world so filled with images of ourselves, we are often unable to define who we are.  What makes me ME and not YOU?  I think video art is a way to explore individual identity and how our original identity cooperates or conflicts with others' identities.  Smith and Steward provide a great example of defining their identity as one entity in a relationship and the frustration, anxiety, and struggle to identify themselves separately from one another.  Maybe that is why their videos are often so unbearable to watch.  They cause themselves and each other physical harm, even preventing one another from breathing, in the efforts to define themselves without the other.