Gary Hill: Frustrum / IMAI / Art Cologne 2007

At this year’s ART COLOGNE, Inter Media Art Institute IMAI shows Gary Hill’s spectacular installation “Frustrum” for the first time in Germany. The largescale installation is a co-production of the foundation IMAI, Düsseldorf, and the Fondation Cartier in Paris. The work of the American artist already attracted international attention, when the pure goldbar, a central element of the installation, was robbed out of the Fondation Cartier in February. Short interview with imai’s Axel Wirth. Art Cologne, April 17, 2007.
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For “Frustrum” Gary Hill had Cartier Corporation produce a 12,5 kg gold bar, placing it in the middle of a 63 m2 wide basin, that is filled with 2000 litres of pure mineral oil. The black oil surface reflects a video production. The text embossed on the gold bar “FOR EVERYTHING WHICH IS VISIBLE IS A COPY OF THAT WHICH IS HIDDEN” refers to the ambiguity of the employed objects and images. The apparent “values” shown by Frustrum are not only symbolic, but real – with all their difficult implications for the production and exhibition of the work. With this Hill comments, at one level, on the political systems of power, but at the same time questions the processes of “making art” and the actual development of art as a form of investment and status symbol of power, being deployed beyond the borders of the aesthetic. (Inter Media Art Institute IMAI)

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