Images de surface

Electronic art is a paradoxical practice, employing a panoply of aesthetic stategies to simultaneously imitate and subvert the surface logic of contemporary images. Discussing a loss or absence of depth characteristic of video, Christine Ross examines approximately 20 critical texts and video works produced between 1973 and 1992. The author analyses the concept of surface through four categories which have dominated the last 30 years of video practice: spectacle (Daniel Reeves, General Idea, Frederic Jameson); narcissism (Dan Graham, Vito Acconti, Rosalind Krauss); reflection (Peter Campus, Riachard Angers, Bill Viola); and the feminine (Nan Hoover, Sadie Benning, Kate Craig).