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40 years of digital media

10 September 2008

Joseph Beuys. Photo W J Hannappel.

The Monash University Faculty Gallery at the Caulfield campus has launched a new exhibition -- 40 Years Video Art -- (German) Digital Heritage.

The exhibition provides an overview of historical as well as current trends in video art, including its early beginnings in film and television. Fifty-nine individual art works are featured, all produced in Germany between 1963 and 2004.

Professor Claudia Terstappen from the Department of Fine Arts initiated the exhibition in conjunction with the Photography and Video Research Network.

"The featured video works specifically reveal the development of video art work from monitor presentations to installations that took place in the 1980s. The exhibition allows us to focus on a broad sphere of contemporary art, cross-pollinated with television, film and photography," Professor Terstappen said.

"At the same time it creates an awareness of a medium that requires as much care in its life-span of existence as any other artwork; an important issue that art historians, artists, museums and galleries face."

40 Years Video Art includes artists such as Rebecca Horn, Valie Export, Nam June Paik, Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovic/Ulay, Katharina Sieverding, Klaus vom Bruch, Dieter Kiessling, Ulrike Rosenbach and Ingo Guenther.

Jeanne Faust, one of the video artists in the exhibition, has been invited to Monash as an Artist-in-Residence. Faust will discuss her work in a Wednesday Lunch-Time Art Forum on Wednesday 17 September at 12.30 pm.

Additional lectures will be scheduled during the exhibition, which is on display until Saturday 27 September.

"This truly impressive selection of works emphasises the richness of video art that has shaped the understanding and knowledge of digital media today," Professor Terstappen said.

The exhibition is supported by the Goethe Institute, Australia.

For more information visit the Faculty Gallery website.