Head of a Man with Death on His Mind
Peter Campus
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1978, Video projection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of the Bohen Foundation, Tang Museum February 11 - September 10, 2006
1978, Video projection, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of the Bohen Foundation, Tang Museum February 11 - September 10, 2006
A number of the works in And Therefore I Am seek to represent through audio recordings, video, or layers of text what neuroscientist Christof Koch has termed “the movie in our minds.” In contrast, Head of a Man with Death on His Mind shows only the exterior of its subject. Peter Campus doesn’t pretend he can know what is truly happening in the mind of the man portrayed in this moody, slightly ominous video. The title directs viewers to see the image in a sinister light, without indicating whose demise or what manner of death might be implied. The result presents a puzzle common to everyday experience: looking at someone’s face and trying to guess what he or she is thinking.
According to the artist:
“This videotape projection work is from a dark period in my life. I was trying to look into myself as someone would look into a mirror, to discover the shadowy side of my being. It was made with actor John Erdman. My instructions to him were to gaze into the lens, moving as little as possible. I wanted John to project into the camera an understanding of this dark side, to project a comprehension of mortality, of finality, of what he felt about it. The title of the work, Head of a Man with Death on His Mind, came afterward. I manipulated a number of the video controls, distorting the whites out of the accepted range to form a mask around the face, distorting the blacks to disappear into each other like a pool of the unknown.”
According to the artist:
“This videotape projection work is from a dark period in my life. I was trying to look into myself as someone would look into a mirror, to discover the shadowy side of my being. It was made with actor John Erdman. My instructions to him were to gaze into the lens, moving as little as possible. I wanted John to project into the camera an understanding of this dark side, to project a comprehension of mortality, of finality, of what he felt about it. The title of the work, Head of a Man with Death on His Mind, came afterward. I manipulated a number of the video controls, distorting the whites out of the accepted range to form a mask around the face, distorting the blacks to disappear into each other like a pool of the unknown.”