Tap Piece

Description

"'Tap' is probably the most well-known of the '7 TV Pieces'. Unseen hands place a tap inside a glass tank, framed so that the tank's edges coincide with the sides of the TV. The tap is turned on, filling the space with water until it itself is submerged. The tank continues to fill until the meniscus - the surface line of the water - rises out of view. The tap is withdrawn and turned off, leaving that most forbidden of things, a blank silent screen. After a pause of several seconds the plug is pulled and the tank empties, now with the meniscus cutting acoss the screen at a 45 degree angle. Beyond the reference to the box as as glass-fronted container, the piece serves to demonstrate how framing is crucial in determining how we understand an image, and hence how meaning is created, not just by what framing includes, but also in the sense of the editorial function is performs. This leads to a wider reading of the work as a critique of the largely invisible editorial practices of programme makers and indeed the TV institutions..." (Nicky Hamlyn in Coil magazine 9/10, London 2000) (Source, website, Rewind)

«Often I attempted to interface reality and image, apparatus and illusion – the spatio/temporal ambiguities of the medium. In one a water tap appears in the top corner of the blank screen. the tap is turned on and the cathode ray tube ‘fills with water’. The tap is removed. The water is drained out, this time with the water line obliquely inclined to the expected horizontal. The screen is again blank – normal service is resumed, and the illusion restored.» (David Hall) These video studies conceptually pioneered the art of television interruption and were broadcast on Scottish television in 1971 without explanation. „The project was to make ten pieces for broadcast by Scottish TV unannounced and uncredited – a total surprise and mystery. Later I chose seven, '7 TV Pieces' for distribution.“
The pieces include a.o. "Burning TV" (1st - 2.20secs), "Tap" (3rd piece - 3.31secs), "Street" (6th - 2.44secs), "Two Figures" (Source, website, MediaArtNet)

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Additional Informations

This play is part of the TV Interruptions series which was first broadcast on Scottish television during the Locations Edinburgh exhibition during the Edinburgh Festival from 23 August to 10 September 1971 in Edinburgh.

"Often I attempted to interface reality and image, apparatus and illusion – the spatio/temporal ambiguities of the convention – were the demonstrative objectives in my own early TV Pieces (1971) for STV. In one, following a regular broadcast programme with no announcement, a water tap (again approximately life-size) is inserted into the top right-hand corner of the blank screen. the tap is turned on, out of vision, and the cathode ray tube ‘fills with water’. The tap is removed. The water is drained off, this time with the water line obliquely inclined to the expected horizontal. The screen is again blank – normal service is resumed and the illusion restored." (Source : David Hall, "British Video Art. Towards an Autonomous Practice", Studio International, May/June 1976, p. 248-254.)

Image from each of the 7 TV Pieces. (Source [expired], website, Rewind)

“ ... The idea of inserting them as interruptions to regular programmes was crucial and a major influence on their content. That they appeared unannounced with no titles (two or three times a day over ten days) was essential. To get a TV company to agree to show them, and with these conditions, was a coup... “ The transmissions were a surprise, a mystery. No explanations, no excuses. Reactions were various. I viewed one piece in an old gents’ club. The TV was permanently on but the occupants were oblivious to it, reading newspapers or dozing. When the TV began to fill with water newspapers dropped, the dozing stopped. When the piece finished normal activity was resumed. When announcing to shop assitants and engineers in a local TV shop that another was about to appear they welcomed me in. When it finished I was obliged to leave quickly by the back door. I took these as positive reactions...” (David Hall, Source : 19:4:90 Television Interventions, [s.l.], Fields and Frames Productions ltd., 1990.)

This series was reproposed by the artist in 2006 in an installation: "These works were Initially broadcast as television interventions but subsequent single-screen gallery viewings cannot induce a sense of the original context. An alternative proposal exhibits them as a multi-faceted installation, all seven displayed at the same time, each continuously looping on seven separate monitors randomly placed in close proximity in a single space. The sound conflicts and viewers simultaneously see parts of others as they attempt to concentrate on one. This induces some confusion, as it was when they first appeared on TV, creating "difficulties" analogous to the original experience.... It has the feeling of intervention." (David Hall, 2005) (Source [expired], website, Rewind)

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Publications and Periodicals which reference the work

- Ken Gay, "documentary", Films and Filming, June 1972. (Source, pdf, Rewind)

- Paul Overy, "The sculptor as a film-maker", The Times, May 14th 1974. (Source, pdf, Rewind)

- Sue Braden, "The Tate's Touch", Time Out, May 24th - 30 1974. (Source, pdf, Rewind)

- David Hall, "British Video Art. Towards an Autonomous Practice", Studio International, May/June 1976, p. 248-254. (Source, pdf, Monoskop)

- 19:4:90 Television Interventions, [s.l.], Fields and Frames Productions ltd., 1990.

- Julia Knight (ed.), Diverse practices: a critical reader on British video art, University of Luton Press, Luton, 1996.

- David Curtis (ed.), A Directory of British Film and Video Artists, John Libbey Media, Luton, 1996.

- Leonor Hanny, Television; Video's Frightful Parent, [s.l.], [s.n.], 2000. (Source, pdf, Rewind)

- Nicky Hamlyn, Film Art Phenomena, BFI Publishing, London, 2003. (Source, pdf, Rewind)

- Catherine Elwes, Video Art: A Guided Tour, I.B. Tauris, London, New York, 2005.

- Joanna Heatwole, "Media of Now: an interview with David Hall", Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, Volume 36, Aug/Sep published by the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York, 2008. (Source, pdf, Rewind)

- Stephen Partridge & Sean Cubitt (eds.), REWIND| British Artists' Video in the 1970s & 1980s, John Libbey Publishing, East barnet, Herts, 2012.