A long, narrow streak of light falls across the screen, a hand plays through it. Now the light is broken by the volume of the hand, then again the light remains intact. The spot of light becomes an object that can be lengthened by means of the index finger. One would think that the finger writes a ray of light.

A drawing by Rembrandt has had a decisive influence on Nan Hoover's work. It is therefore not surprising that light and the human body became important themes in her work. In Impressions, a long, thin streak of light falls horizontally across the screen, with a hand playing through it. Sometimes the light is broken by the volume of the hand, at other times the light remains intact. The streak of light becomes an object that can be extended with the i…dex finger. This makes it seem as though the finger writes a ray of light.

An early tape that strikingly demonstrates how for Nan Hoover work in video is handicraft, in the literal sense, and the video camera no less basic a tool than the pencil.
Subject and execution coincide: the hand drawing light and shadows on a surface is at the same time the hand being portrayed. Read more...