Shirt
JOHN STURGEON
Shirt
©1974, B&W, 6:06 minutes, sound
By repeating a sequence, then working directly on the surface of the monitor with alligator clips, Sturgeon transforms the act of folding a shirt into a painterly field of self-information gathering. Electronic readings of various movements of the arms alter the picture information to the bare chest sitting in the open desert. It is there that the screen’s test locations zeros in on the heart.
Shirt retains a concern for the surface quality of images by exploring figure and ground relationships both internally (within the repetitious folding of a shirt) and externally (through definitions that articulate physical characteristics of the video technology, such as 'stop framing' and the monitoring of actions).
Peter Goulds
L.A. Louver Gallery
1975 Arts Council of Great Britain,
Serpentine Gallery exhibition
"The Video Show"
Four of John Sturgeon’s early B&W video works from 1974 were curated into The Video Show - 1975 Arts Council of Great Britain, Serpentine Gallery exhibition, London, England. All four of these works from the 1975 The Video Show are included in the collection of the British Film/Video Archives (Steven Ball director).
(waterpiece) ©1974
NOR/MAL CON/VERSE ©1974
Shirt ©1974
HANDS UP ©1974
The Video Show exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London, was touted at the Tate Modern's 2012 REWIND opening as being a seminal event for British video art. The catalog was inclusive of almost everyone - literally a world snapshot from the first generation of American video artists’ small format activity by the mid-70s, including these works by John Sturgeon.
It was a revolutionary, one-of-a-kind exhibition - with amazing inclusivity and scope. I don't ever recall a similar attempt of such scope in the U.S.
Steven Ball, director – British Film/Video Archives, London
Spin 411 (by: John Sturgeon & Nina Sobel) was a 1974 “installation-event” created for the Experimental Lab Theater of the Mark Taper Forum. Among the following four solo videos by John Sturgeon featured in Spin 411 was one of the first public viewings of Hands Up ©1974.
Although there is no available video or photographic documentation of SPIN 411, historically this event showcased the artist’s early individual works, which became seminal to his career.
These early B&W videos by John Sturgeon, included:
Shirt
Date Completed: June 1974, Venice, California
Produced: Venice, CA & Anza Borrego Desert, CA
Non-Verbal (with sound and image)
Copyright: John Sturgeon, ©1974
Length: 6:06 minutes, black/white, mono
Original Master Format: 1/2" Reel-to-Reel AV
Sub-Master: Beta Cam SP, DVCam NTSC
CREDITS:
Artist / Performer: John Sturgeon
Camera & Edit: John Sturgeon