'A scholarly show of video-works dating from the 1970s and 80s, reminding audiences of how video-works were introduced to Glasgow by the then - radicalised Third Eye Centre and Transmission.'

Neil Mulholland, Art Review - Summer 2010.

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In recent years we have seen a provocative return to the moving image artworks of the 70s and 80s and the driving concerns of the period. The aesthetic of video is a profound influence in contemporary artistic practice, but the lineage remains uneven, with many works forgotten, and with the tape medium itself highly fragile to the ravages of time.

‘Lost and Found’ revisits a number of video installations, which have been largely unseen since their original presentations in two seminal video exhibitions held in Glasgow. Tony Sinden’s ‘Behold Vertical Devices’ was featured in Scotland’s first group video show, ‘Video: Towards Defining an Aesthetic’, held at the Third Eye Centre (now the CCA) in Glasgow in 1976. Other works by Pictorial Heroes, Stephen Partridge, Zoe Redman and Stephen Littman were all included in the next exhibition of video art, shown in Glasgow ten years later, in ‘EventSpace 1’ at Transmission Gallery in 1986.

In the early days of video art, technological advancements were providing new opportunities for the development of the medium, and the Videowall concept helped develop the expanded use of video and its the synchronisation using large playback systems. This was piloted in the Transmission show in 1986, and is reconstructed in its 16 monitor form in the current exhibition. The Videowall was a powerful new tool for the progression of the installational ideas of video art as a whole at the time and it went on to be launched at the first Video Positive Festival in 1989 in Liverpool.

The exhibition also features a new performance and installation work by Kevin Atherton, ‘The Television – Repeat’ includes clips from his 1986 work ‘Stand Up TV – Death in Glasgow’ as well as appearances of Amsterdam cable TV.

‘Lost and Found’ underlines the simultaneous developments in gallery exhibitions in Scotland and England in the developing years of electronic and conceptual art practice. The works have been transferred from their original analogue format to digital playback but presented in most part in their original technological apparatus – the video monitor as an object, as installation, and as a light source.

Curated by Street Level Photoworks.
Presented in partnership with Rewind and in association with Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010.
Thanks to: VRC, Adam Lockhart, Steve Partridge, Steve Littman, Doug Aubrey, Stills, DCA