Solstice d'hiver [Winter Solstice] is part of the Live series proposed by Philippe Grandrieux and produced by the French television channel, La Sept. One rule was imposed: "Filming a 60-minute sequence shot alone, using video 8, without any interruptions or editing."

The sequence shot contrasts with the fragmentation, the echoing of the rhythm of spoken language or music and the stream of sequences with which Gary Hill usually works. Solstice d'hiver not only changes the relation to time, but also the relation to space. The reduction of space to the object in the fragmentation gives way to the limits of an apartment. There is an attempt to overturn the temporal constraint, on the one hand in a narrative dimension, with the suggested idea of the solitude of a winter's day indoors, and on the other hand in a vaster dimension, with the reference to the solar system in the title. The first thirty minutes are an experiment with duration through the excessive slowness of the tracking shots and gestures: the rotation of the camera in the living room takes half an hour. The spectator sees it pan over the anodyne objects in a western apartment. The artist appears. We only see the torso of his body. He then takes fifteen minutes to pick up a record, remove it from its sleeve, place it on the record player, switch it on and, finally, leave the screen. The camera executes a series of short zooms in and out. Through the windows appear the snow-covered urban landscape and the limit between inside and outside.

The sound is linked to the space. The artist speaks without being clearly audible in front of the hi-fi, while the sequence involving the window is associated with a voiceover from the record which creates an effect of spatial distance. At the end of the camera's rotation, the sound is electronic and becomes more musical than strident.

The artist leaves the room and the sound indicates that he is taking a shower. He returns to the living room, naked. The camera follows him into the kitchen where he hurriedly tidies up and then closes the doors. In the bedroom, the camera remains fixed, facing the bed. The place of rest becomes a place of agitation for the artist, when he throws books and then clothes around. The sequence with the books opens up a whole cultural panorama. The titles that he reads ("Innocent present", etc.) are interspersed with critical remarks. As if all these philosophical and intellectual questions and answers were both red-hot and outdated or unsatisfactory.

In Gary Hill's work, rotation is associated with the duration, the cycle and the accomplishment of an action - in Full Circle the circular graphic matches the manipulation of a metal wire - or the phases of a narration - in Processual Video a line on the screen defines such cycles. Comparatively, in Solstice d'hiver the image itself narrates the action and represents the abstract concept of time. The words are initially secondary (the artist talks to himself and the voice is a reference point in terms of spatial distance), but then the reading and speech become brief theoretical and critical statements which add little to the image.

As if he wanted to stay in the background, the artist does not show his body in its entirety. His occasional nudity is part of the intimate register of this home movie.

Thérèse Beyler