2 Aspects
John Sturgeon
American, born 1946
1976
A four-minute black-and-white video in which John Sturgeon stages close-up interactions between a body and a small object, using the televisual frame to make gesture and material relationship the work’s subject.
The image hits you with a cropped, rounded-TV view—grainy high-contrast limbs and hands dominate the white ground as they ritualistically manipulate a tiny object that throws a bold shadow, forcing attention on touch and motion.
Created in the 1970s, this piece is part of video art’s effort to translate performance into the mediated, intimate language of television, helping redefine how artists recorded and reframed choreography, objecthood, and viewer perception.
Medium
Video (black and white, sound)
Dimensions
4:08 min.
Classification
Department
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Barbara Pine
Accession
1294.1979
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
