David Hall (b. 1937, UK – d. 2014, UK)
This is a Video Monitor, 1974
This is a Television Receiver, 1976

I’ve been intuitively “collecting” here “self-referential” works without fully knowing how they may be pertinent to what I am doing. Let’s accept it as a hunch for now. I am also quite amazed how many artists have been exploring that same idea or method – whether Morris “Box with the Sound of its Own Making” or Lucier in “I am sitting in a room”. In some cases, like Morris, it is just drawing attention to the process over the object, in others, like Lucier or Hall, it enacts serial degeneration. Perhaps it is a clash of codes that fascinates me – presented as artworks these pieces invoke an “art appreciation code” that for many means assessment of aesthetic qualities of the object exhibited and “what the artist wanted to say”. But then what at first appears to be “the meaningful object” starts deteriorating or sliding into the background, highlighting instead something about the process of its making or the medium being employed, invoking more “deconstruction code” – whether mechanical or philosophical – more aiming to figure out how something is done. But, very importantly, apparent “deterioration” does not leave a hole, it just shifts perspective, highlights something else. And while it may seem for a moment that it is artistic “message” or meaning that is being sacrificed for pure rebellious subversion or technological interest, McLuhan soon comes running to remind us about medium being the message… Lucier’s “meaningful” words may have been gone, but he thinks he has captured some sonic quality of that particular room instead. Hall’s “quality image” may be gone, but it opens for discussion of construction of authority in TV etc. So here we are again, back at the “meaning” and not just formal qualities of the medium – but a different meaning already, while the object remains the same. Maybe that’s what fascinates me about these works… Their stealthy polysemy, their ability to trigger radical shift of perspective in the course of the same encounter?… I write this as a form of stream of consciousness, I don’t know to what extent this make sense, but it seems to be outlining my interest.

And that may relate to some of my photo, situation and painting works where I present less than I have, a copy of a copy rather than original; something intentionally blurred or reduced, possibly trying to find something that is hidden in the plain sight. But I am not done yet, this is still interesting, I still haven’t figured it out fully, so perhaps I will keep collecting works that operate on a similar principle, just to see if that leads me to any new interesting insights.