It is

2003

Video

15min. 38sec.

The words are delivered, the meaning of the work is spelled out. Determined. Sufficient. Individual. Known. Absolute. That’s what makes up the fifteen-minute video It is, created starting from a projection of slides dating from 1971. Robert Barry thus strings these adjectives by applying the technique of the chained background, which enables him to “create a slow flow passing from a word or a degree of sharpness to another” within a relentless conceptual assemblage.

After his artistic debuts that saw the handling of different types of sounds, Barry developed a visual practice that questions specifically the space and time characteristics of photography and film. Since the 1970s, he has focused particularly on language and creates projections of slides of words, photographs or fragments of text.

Robert Barry’s video It is belongs to the Pinault Collection. It was first shown at the 2013 “Prima Materia” (“Raw Material”) exhibition at the Punta della Dogana.
Exhibitions