What is the work? On the challenges of exhibiting, distributing, and preserving video and film installations
The variable nature of many contemporary artworks requires that they be treated as continuums. Thus the best way of grasping their identity, both conceptually and materially, is to study the entirety of their life cycle. In this article, we propose an approach that takes into account the fluid nature of media artworks, and at the same time allows the formation of their identity to be documented. This approach is illustrated by way of a case study of the work As the Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration) (1982) by Canadian artist John Massey. A reconstruction of this work’s life cycle allows us to demonstrate how this work came to define itself through each of its showings and evolving versions, and also through its circulation in the art world and its preservation.