Output details

David Hall: ‘End Piece…’

Conceived and curated by Michael Mazière, David Hall’s exhibition consisted of a new commission, 1,001 TV Sets (End Piece) (1972-2012), and a re-staging of his two early works Progressive Recession (1974) and TV Interruptions (Seven TV Pieces): The Installation (1971-2006). A contemporary reworking of Hall’s early work, 101 TV Sets, 1,001 TV Sets featured 1,001 cathode ray tube televisions of all ages and conditions tuned randomly to different analogue stations, and gradually fading out between 4-18 April, as the final analogue signals were broadcast from London’s Crystal Palace.

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Video art originally developed as a practice in the UK in the early 1970s, although mainstream recognition only came later through the work of the Young British Artists. While video art is now widespread, early work has not been effectively historicised or contextualised through curation. Recent exhibitions in Europe (Changing Channels 1963-87) charting its historical evolution have ignored UK video artists' early work, a gap more noticeable given the existence of projects such as the Rewind archive and numerous books/journals (e.g. Cubitt and Partridge). This project was an attempt at redress, by offering one of the pioneers of video art, David Hall, an opportunity to reinterpret and update his early seminal work 101 TV Sets. The research asked how a curator might act as a catalyst and enabler in a process of reinterpretation and how this might provide insight into the links between such works and contemporary practices. Choosing to stage the work at the cut-off of the analogue signal was of primary importance to the aims of the research, since the site of Hall’s work is not simply the art world but the wider participatory context of broadcast television as a social phenomenon. The project was realised through collaboration between the researcher, the artist and groups representative of video art practice, particularly the Rewind project. Through this collaboration, the performance element of video art was highlighted and the importance of its sculptural components emphasised in the spatial disposition of the installation. Research also showed how a curator can function to emphasise context and relate historic themes in video art to contemporary issues: for example, video art’s political origins and critique of mass media was reinstated through the curated aural and visual assault on the senses of the analogue broadcast signal.