Around and About (1980)

Around & About is one of those intimate tapes where Gary Hill makes his contribution through his own voice and the text: its subject covers a private situation. The artist finds himself in the same situation as a writer, but with video that he can transform into a space of solitude. Around & About’s text is about a difficult relationship between two people (corresponding to the pronouns "I" and "You" ): "I am not ready to be complex", "I want to be with you", I don’t want to be separated", "I want to carry on"… The spoken word attempts to reach out to the other person, but holds back on the very brink of itself, as if the other person were already inaccessible. It is blunt, futile and monotonous. It is a monologue and makes its declarations without any return response, itself making, in advance, the return responses of the other. The image comes and gives various bodies to what is said: the image is in perpetual fragmentation. Small segments move about the screen like bricks of meaning which fit together and come apart. In this way, the inside of an office is assembled then broken up; moving local micro-perceptions alternate with global units of comprehension which themselves vary. The system of inclusion opens up from inside