Primary
(Heerlen / Willemstraat, ‘onder de bogen’)
Primary is a performance video in which Gary Hill (1951) associates the articulation of spoken language with the main colours of video signal: red, bleu, green. The speed with which Hill articulates the words “red, blue, green” makes the colours change accordingly. The editing of these one-syllable words serves as basis for the asynchronous composition. The individual words are almost inaudible, but they are easier to read due to the changing colours and the movement of the lips.
Primary was one of the first video works to use spoken language as an element for structuring image and sound. Hill does not provide an analysis of the articulation, but puts speech back in its context and makes it into a physical process. Besides Primary, another work of Hill, Mediations (towards a remake of Soundings) is on show in Maastricht, Bassinkade 3.