Three Transitions

Peter Campus

Three Transitions, 1973

Artwork text

Three Transitions is one of the seminal works in video. In three short exercises, Campus uses basic techniques of video technology and his own image to create succinct, almost philosophical metaphors for the psychology of the self. In these concise performances, he employs video's inherent properties as a metaphorical vehicle for articulating transformations of internal and external selves, illusion and reality. In the first "transition," Campus records with two cameras simultaneously on either side of a sheet of paper to achieve a breathtaking visual illusion: he appears to stab himself in the back, climb through the rupture in his body, and emerge whole on the other side. In the second exercise, Campus uses the effect of chromakey to achieve a potent metaphorical effect. He wipes his face with his hand and, in doing so, "erases" its surface -- only to reveal another image of his face underneath. Finally, in a dynamic conclusion, he appears to burn the living image of his face (as if it were a photograph), leaving only blackness. In each episode, Campus displaces an image of himself and eventually eradicates it. He writes that these works "deal with duality in an ironic way, also with the video space made with this technological tool. The question of self is important, as the performer tries to expose the illusions the artist has set up." The tape's precise formalism and simplicity of execution advance the psychological wit and symbolic content. The first of Campus' works to be produced at WGBH-TV in Boston, Three Transitions is a remarkably powerful articulation of video technology as a metaphorical vehicle. (Electronic Arts Intermixed, New York) The Three transitions, going nowhere, like mobius strips are transformations of images into energy; and video being electronic energy, illuminate the ironically illusionistic, the destruction/regeneration process in a way no other medium is able. Exploring the transforming plastic possibilities of video, Campus uses irony of illusion and reality. (Video End)