A man flings himself at a wall repeatedly and each he speaks a single word. The sound is “modified” by the physical impact of the body against the wall. During the recording, at the moment of contact, a single flash of high-intensity light strobes the body. These “speech acts” have been edited together to form a linear text and a sequence of a body in various positions up against a wall. In the gallery, a strobe light is mounted on the floor and focuses on the projected image. It flashes approximately once every second, going in and out of synchronization with the recorded flashes of light. Sometimes the light precedes the image, echoes the image, or when in unison, obliterates the image.
As in all Hill’s work, the physical wall is a representation of something “other”: a technological and corporeal impasse. Wall Piece is about transcending boundaries and about the nagging doubts of existence. Beyond the anxiety about remaining alive, as Hill’s words imply, lies a higher level of consciousness. The struggle to move beyond the impasse onto another plane is articulated by a series of statement and questions: