Solstice d’Hiver (1990)

Overview

Solstice d’Hiver was Hill’s last single-channel video before the recently completed Goats and Sheep and Blind Spot. The work was recorded in real time and was taped December 21, between the hours of 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. At the beginning the camera moves in slow increments around a sun bathed room, gently embracing objects contained within as if seen for the first and last time. The scene is almost silent, with the occasional sound of the autofocus on the camera lens readjusting as it searches for a subject to focus on. A figure, the artist, enters into the frame and with determined slowness places a record on a record player. It is a sound composition by the avant garde composer Alvin Lucier entitled, “I am Sitting in a Room."