Developed from his philosophical outlook on closures, Hilary Lawson shot the first video paintings in 2001. The unique medium can be defined by the criteria set out by Hilary and the collective of artists who helped to develop video painting, Sarah Turner, Sanchita Islam, Isabelle Inghillieri and William Raban. The camera must remain stationary; there must be no editing or manipulation of the image after it is recorded, and there is no dialogue or sounds present that may enforce meaning. This group together founded the Artscape Project in 2003, intending to free moving images from the filmic gaze in order to approach openness.

That same year, Hilary worked with computer scientist William Sowerbutts to developed the Laluna technology, a system which not only stored the video paintings, but allowed them to be played in a non-sequential order, without repetition.

Lawson and his fellow video painting artists have achieved great success and interest in the medium ever since, with artworks being exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, Sketch, the ICA and The Globe at Hay. The Artscape Project became Open Gallery in 2005, a gallery that aims to integrate video painting into the wider world, with pieces becoming an integral feature of many restaurants, hotels, offices – and more recently healthcare settings, such as UCLH and The London Women’s Hospital.

For more infomation about Open Gallery, please visit www.opengallery.co.uk.