Last Saturday, a delightful art show took place. Lycoming students scattered video art installations throughout the labyrinthine Pajama Factory. Despite being ubiquitous in larger cities, video art had yet to establish a presence in Williamsport until now. What’s caused the change? Lycoming College has hired Leah Peterson as a video art professor, opened a multi-media gallery, and is now reaching into unknown territory (for Lycoming students anyway), the other side of Williamsport.
There’s still a long way to go, though. For instance, when most people hear “video art,” nothing comes to mind. Unlike the history of painting or sculpture, video art’s story isn’t well known outside of the art world. Everyone knows Picasso, but what about Nam June Paik? The man built a sculpture out of a thousand TVs but superstardom has escaped him. Anyway, by describing the students’ exhibition, I hope to give a little bit of an introduction to the aesthetics of video art.
Everyone loves his or her favorite, so I’ll start with mine. The first thing I saw, as I entered the lobby, was a projected video of doors opening and closing. As I watched double doors shut, shutters fly up, security gates glide down and heard the distinct thuds and squeals of each, I became enthralled. It was so simple and yet stunning. “This is what video art can do,” I thought. The artists, Stephanie Knaus and Jason Heritage, used a camera to research their surroundings. They established a logic in their video through the repetitious movement of doors. Their “narrative” came alive through the relationships between outside doors, inside doors, doors with and without windows, doors in daylight, doors at night, doors with knobs, doors with handles, etc. Each door had its own feeling, its own action, and its own moment.
Another piece I enjoyed was an installation by Karen Gerofsky and Brian Fredo. It consisted of a TV deeply set (about 4 feet down?) in a hole in the floor surrounded by turf. Something very intriguing happened as people set their feet on the turf, leaned over the opening, nearly touched heads, and saw the image of a person staring back at them. I imagined what it would be like to view the situation from where the TV head was, that is, at the bottom of the well-like cavity. I pictured seeing the circle of viewers hovering above, curiously gazing down. Thanks for that moment, Karen and Brian. You made me more aware of the architecture of the space than I ever would’ve been.
Partly why I loved this show so much is because it was installation based. In Williamsport, where most art is shown on walls in places that are primarily venues for things other than art (I intend no offense to the businesses who support art. I am grateful to you), it was exciting to see artists given the opportunity to tailor a space for their art. I can only hope that Lycoming College continues to work with the Pajama Factory (even if the attendance wasn’t high) and that more places support video art because there’s lots of potential for cool things to happen.
