Art fairs are often not the most welcoming space for video art—the booths are too bright, the background too noisy, time too short—but more and more galleries are showing this important medium as collectors’ interest grows. At Frieze London there are at least 30 video works this year. And with a total running time of more than three hours (excluding works shown on loops) the most dedicated visitor will be hard pressed to take it all in among the other temptations of the fair. So here is our pick of five video works and the story behind the screen.
Amie Siegel, Double Negative (2015)
Duration: 17min, 4min, 4min
Simon Preston Gallery (FL, G25)
Three films make up this work by the US artist Amie Siegel. “They’re locked together,” says the dealer Simon Preston. The 16mm projectors purr seductively as they show Le Corbusier’s white Villa Savoye, outside Paris, opposite a built homage in black in Canberra, Australia. The beautiful monochrome imagery, also depicts black swans, which are native to Australia. It is joined by a high-definition colour video nearby that delves into the historically-charged artefacts found inside the black Villa, which houses the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. The edition is of five, and prices start at $60,000.
Ken Okiishi, gesture/feedback series (2015)
Duration: various, on loops
Pilar Corrias Gallery (FL, B19)
Sold individually or in diptychs (for $30,000 to $50,000) the found VHS footage of old sports games and daytime TV programmes is embedded on a hard drive inside painted televisions, so that you can take the whole thing home and “plug it in”, says a spokeswoman for the gallery. Each work is a “one-off”, she says. The television screens have been rotated through 90 degrees and daubed with paint, which seems to reduce the once familiar footage behind it to strangely lulling shapes and colours. Okiishi has also filmed the TV screens and presented that footage on newly painted screens, creating a strange double layer of real and “TV paint”. It is all a bit meta—but surprisingly addictive.
William E. Jones, Shoot Don’t Shoot (2012)
Duration: 4m 33s
The Modern Institute (FL, E5)
“Pick up your gun and be prepared to shoot,” says the voiceover in Jones’s film, using archival footage in a police training video. A young black man is seen walking in different public scenarios and the viewer is put in the position of a police officer, making judgements about the man, says Jeremy Parker, a gallery representative. The gallery has chosen to show the work, by LA-based Jones, as it touches upon the “current debate on gun control” in the US. As the news is dominated by actual shootings, there is an odd sense of relief that this is only a training exercise; as the voiceover says: “if you shot, you were wrong”.
Michel Auder, My Last Bag of Heroin (For Real (1986)
Duration: 4min
Fonti (FL, G22)
It “really was” his last bag of heroin, says the art dealer Giangi Fonti. But the film is not just the confessions of an addict but those of a film-maker too: Auder can’t help but move the camera between takes to alter the lighting in this home video. The work is an edition of five (in Betamax as well as a digital formats) for $30,000.
Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, q0 (2014)
Duration: 19min 50s
Gallery Hyundai (FL, F3)
Tucked away behind Gallery Hyundai beyond Frieze’s bright lights, is a quiet room where you can be transported halfway around the world, in high definition. The film by Moon and Jeon, who are representing South Korea at the Venice Biennale, was commissioned by Seoul’s Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. It consists of on 13 short episodes that all centre on a decorated clam shell from the museum’s collection. The film, in an edition of five, is on sale for $90,000 to $110,000.