Comparing David Hall & Sam Taylor-Wood's video instillation's
I’m going to compare and contrast two video installations. The first one I’m going to talk about is by David Hall. ‘Tap Piece’ made in 1971 starts off with a blank screen, then all of a sudden a tap is put in the top right corner of the screen and turned on. You then realize the screen is a tank, filling with water. The water is gushing out of the tap, bubbling and filling the screen. The power of the tap is pushing the water down vigorously and forcing the bubbles up in a ‘v’ shape. With this image you hear the sound of the flow of water gushing into the tank. As the water level rises it covers the end of the tap, and the sound goes. The level of the water however, is steadily rising. You know the water is still poring in, even though you can no longer hear it. There is no visible movement of the water entering the tank and all you can see is the water rising until it fills the screen. At this point the tap is removed, and now the screen is blank just as it is at the start of the video but we now is now full of water.
The second piece I’m going to talk about is by Sam Tayler-wood, ‘A Little Death’ made in 2002. The first thing you see on the screen is a dead Hare, lying partly on it’s side with it’s front legs stretched out one on top of the other, and it’s hind quarters and back legs arranged up the wall. To the left and in front of it’s front paws is a peach.
The artist uses time-laps for piece. After a few seconds you notice something moving in the hares belly. We then see the mass of maggots, which as the video progresses, grows larger and larger eventually you see the body of the hare disintegrate under the maggots. Which by now have covered the animal so that it looks like the hare is moving. in sharp the contrast the peach remains untouched and is rosie and fresh all the way through.
David Hall’s ‘Tap Piece’ has many differences from Sam Tayler-wood’s ‘A Little Death’. The first being, David Hall’s was made in 1971 and played on television in between two tv programs whereas Sam Tayler-wood’s video art was made in 2002 and was only viewable in a video art gallery. Another difference between these two pieces of video art is that Sam Tayler-wood used the technique time-laps, which is a series of pictures put together and sped up. David Hall on the other hand used video. Sam Tayler-wood’s piece ‘A Little Death’ is different to David Hall’s ‘Tap Piece’ also because ‘A Little Death’ has a clear start and end, whereas ‘Tap Piece’ starts with a clear screen and when the water rises above the top of the screen, it seems as though there is nothing there again.
I found that there were more differences than similarities between the two video art installations, But there is a similarity. In David Hall’s piece, the water bubbling is like the maggots movement in Sam Tayler-wood’s piece.
The second piece I’m going to talk about is by Sam Tayler-wood, ‘A Little Death’ made in 2002. The first thing you see on the screen is a dead Hare, lying partly on it’s side with it’s front legs stretched out one on top of the other, and it’s hind quarters and back legs arranged up the wall. To the left and in front of it’s front paws is a peach.
The artist uses time-laps for piece. After a few seconds you notice something moving in the hares belly. We then see the mass of maggots, which as the video progresses, grows larger and larger eventually you see the body of the hare disintegrate under the maggots. Which by now have covered the animal so that it looks like the hare is moving. in sharp the contrast the peach remains untouched and is rosie and fresh all the way through.
David Hall’s ‘Tap Piece’ has many differences from Sam Tayler-wood’s ‘A Little Death’. The first being, David Hall’s was made in 1971 and played on television in between two tv programs whereas Sam Tayler-wood’s video art was made in 2002 and was only viewable in a video art gallery. Another difference between these two pieces of video art is that Sam Tayler-wood used the technique time-laps, which is a series of pictures put together and sped up. David Hall on the other hand used video. Sam Tayler-wood’s piece ‘A Little Death’ is different to David Hall’s ‘Tap Piece’ also because ‘A Little Death’ has a clear start and end, whereas ‘Tap Piece’ starts with a clear screen and when the water rises above the top of the screen, it seems as though there is nothing there again.
I found that there were more differences than similarities between the two video art installations, But there is a similarity. In David Hall’s piece, the water bubbling is like the maggots movement in Sam Tayler-wood’s piece.
David Hall - Tap Piecec
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Sam Taylor-Wood -
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