Entitled ‘1001 TV Sets (End Piece)’, 1972-2012,’ this work by video art pioneer David Hall at London’s Ambika P3 features over 1,000 TV sets, all tuned to random terrestrial stations.
It proved to be an unexpectedly fantastic experience and it’s already on my “must come back” list.
Arriving at the cavernous underground building, you’re greeted by a full-on assault on your senses, with the hall echoing to a cacophony of TV sets, all blasting out different stations.
The piece was commissioned to coincide with the end of analogue TV in the UK on April 18, and as the signals are turned off between April 4-14th, the sound will gradually change from live transmissions to the eerie hiss of white noise.
(Note to the more literal readers: this isn’t an exact and precise diagrammatic representation of the state of analogue transmission in the UK. It’s an art piece interpreting and visualising the process of the nationwide analogue switch off.)
We were lucky to arrive at a particularly good time: Liverpool were playing Stoke, so the fans’ chanting was mixing in with the religious exhalations of a congregation on BBC’s Hymns of ‘Songs Of Praise.’ It made for a wonderful juxtaposition.
The room is more or less pitch black, with only the shifting glow of the TV sets illuminating the concrete walls.
There’s TVs everywhere in the main hall, so you can’t escape the noise.
I loved this piece. The cameras and screens were set up so that you’d appear in places you wouldn’t expect.
Back in the main hall looking down at the hundreds of TV sets.
The sets were imaginatively connected by an overhead loom.
I also shot two rather wobbly videos which I hope will give you some idea of what to expect (see below).
This is definitely an exhibition to come back to, and I’m looking forward to visiting towards the end of April when most of the TVs will have turned to white noise. I loved it!
Info:
David Hall: End Piece is on at Ambika P3, 35 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS until 22 April. Entrance is free.
Related posts:
Southbank at dusk: Royal Festival Hall, Hayward Gallery and QE Hall
Mrs Mills Experience bring a lively night of music hall singalongs to the Brixton Albert
A drink on the fifth floor balcony at the Festival Hall on the Southbank, London
Here is what’s left of the Rest Is Noise bar, Brixton
A walk around the lovely Morden Hall Park, south London
Kinetica Art Fair 2012 – wires, robots, lights and buttons to push
Save Lambeth Libraries Lobby, Lambeth Town Hall 11 April, 2011
Mod mayhem at the Acklam Hall, 1979
Interesting piece, although April will *not* mark the end of analogue in the UK- just the end in London and the Meridian region.
The final switchoffs will come in September in Tyne Tees and October in Ulster
Ambika P3 and the artist have never said this was to be the end of analogue TV in the UK! They say the London shutdown HERALDS the end in the UK. But this is a great piece and an amazing show from an important pre-YBA artist!
Fair enough, John. I was being a bit nerdy there anyway 😀
One possible problem is, most sets manufactured since the mid 1980s, when missing a stable signal, simply switch to standby. This could mean the installation turns into a bit of a damp squib when the London signal goes off…. I got around this in my own smaller-scale artwork documenting the Madrid switch-off 2 years ago by using ancient non-remote TVs and starting up my own low-power UHF broadcasts in the gallery: http://eclectiktronik.wordpress.com/encendido-analogico-antagonico-analogue-switchover/
I saw this today. BBC 2 has gone now, so around a fifth of sets are showing static. Well worth a look- it’s a shame they didn’t combine it with the analogue TV switch off exhibition at the ICA on the mall though.
A belated response, but Oswaldtwisle should note this show was conceived and underway long before the ICA’s. They may even have got the idea to do their’s – a comparatively damp squib in my view – on hearing this was forthcoming!