Proximity and distance: An investigation on interiority in video art

This thesis examines how interiority is constructed in video art. Interiority is understood here to be an aspect of subjectivity that refers to self-reflection or self-regard. I argue that interiority is constructed as a psychological, spatial, and temporal phenomenon. The first chapter questions the theoretical links between narcissism and interiority and considers two videos in detail: Kate Craig's Delicate Issue (1979) and Rodrigue Jean's La mémoire de l'eau (1996). I look at how Craig and Jean construct interiority in their video practices as a psychological characteristic, and I draw on Sigmund Freud's theory of narcissism and Leo Bersani's views on interiority in my interpretation. Chapter Two addresses the notion of bodily space in video practice through a phenomenological perspective. In my analysis of Charlemagne Palestine's Island Song (1976) and Mona Hatoum's So Much I Want to Say (1983) in this chapter, I look at videographic space and bodily space through the lens of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's conception of space as something that one actively inhabits. In the third and final chapter of this thesis, I argue that interiority is informed by our conception of temporality. I examine the representation and manipulation of temporality in video by analyzing Gary Hill's Why Do Things Get in a Muddle (Come on Petunia) (1984) and Douglas Gordon's 24 Hour Psycho (1993).