Page 16 - Studio International - January 1973

Vision without ever seeing the faces clearly, it is Correspondence
unmistakeably THEM, and you are glad to
be able to relax in a limbo of cool
(Film-makers and artists working with film and dissociated boredom, sometime in your
videotape are invited to send information archetypal twentieth-century past. Gordons
regarding their recent and current work to 'Vision', makes Us Drunk, Gordons makes Us Drunk,
c/o Studio International, 37 Museum Street, Gordons makes Us very Drunk, Gordons
London WO for possible notice in this regular makes Us very very Drunk, Gordons makes Us
monthly column.) very very very Drunk . . but it clearly does
nothing of the kind, or at least no more
Arts Council Film Tour noticeably than the well-bred, gin-drinking,
Since Rodney Wilson has been the prime mover English executive does when he is drinking with
on the Arts Council Film panel he has you and calmly arranging your downfall. Portrait
consistently tried to establish the principle that of the Artists as Young Men, I liked best; simple Op delusions
film is an artistic medium in its own right. He and enigmatic, head and shoulders, as long as it Never having been charmed by such a blatantly
has had a battle, gradually moving from the takes to smoke a cigarette, looking not at us, not visual phenomenon as Op Art, I am intrigued by
production of films 'about' art and artists, to at each other, the most refined essence of Mr Fuchs's assertion in his article 'More on the
films by artists about their work, to films by Morcambe and Wise caught with no obligation New Art' (Studio International, November 1972)
artists as an extension of their work, and now to be funny, but retaining the ambivalence of the where he says that my work could well be related
almost to the acceptance of films by film-maker two-man duo act. Available from Nigel to the Op Art tradition. But really such thinking
artists. However, there has to be a clear and Greenwood Inc. Ltd., for sale only (no hire is as feather-brained as saying that a raw egg is
open policy in this direction; considering the arrangement - opportunities for copying too akin to a hen clucking just because it's chicken.
particularly lively interest amongst young great) 41 Sloane Gardens, London SWi. Surely Mr Fuchs has got hold of the wrong
artists in film at the present some action is end of the stick. Perhaps for his next spiral jump
needed quickly, to establish film-making as art, Roger Hammond's Erlanger Programme he should look to the other end. If so, and he
within the scope of the Arts Council's concern. Roger Hammond, and several others, have finds it labelled Top Art', he would be well
In addition to more adventurous productions, been trying for some time to extend directions advised to drop it altogether for such a divining
Wilson has begun to build a collection of films opened up, but not realized by Michael Snow, rod does not find water, let alone hold it.
for touring in Britain, with a much stronger in (Back and Forth), at the same time reacting GERALD NEWMAN
section of films by film-maker artists. The new against his structural 'wholism'. The London NW3
catalogue contains some interesting films, `Programme' eliminates Snow's gestures
particularly Runs Good by Pat O'Neil. towards traditional narrative/literary ideas,
Despite a misleading catalogue note, and goes beyond his films in the concrete Lexicon
Lapis never went near an IBM2250, it is still a visual transformation of space experience, Harold Hurrell's review (Nov. 1972) of my book
most beautiful and classic 'abstract' film made through extreme camera motion/velocity. Most `Science and Technology in Art Today' makes
by James Whitney on a hybrid, analog important it develops a more advanced some rational objections to my terminology and
computer-aided, animation system. Also structural basis, non-determinist and related to methodology (though there is a serious misprint
included in the catalogue is a compilation of Chomsky's conception of generative grammar, or transcription error in my words on
fragments from the history of abstract cinema, within which it is possible to eliminate the kineticism that he quotes, reducing them to
including pieces by Oskar Fischinger, Lazlo unresolved duality between image and nonsense). I would like to question his own
Moholy Nagy, Marcel Duchamp, Ballet procedure of many 'systemic' films. It also language and methodology.
Mechanique by Fernand Léger, and Symphonie attacks the problem of making existential It is reasonable to use strong words to attack
Diagonal by Viking Eggeling. Unfortunately involvement compatible with general one's opponent in an argument, provided that
none of the pieces is complete, and the copies organization. Over and above this 'philosophical' they are supported by some intellectual
are not particularly good. It is well past the time meat, the film has a fine, subtle control of colour conviction of one's own. Hurrell's 'methodology'
for these and other classic films of this early and image qualities, is never didactic, a fusion of seems to be to circumscribe a highly rarefied
movement to be made available, complete, in content into image. level of theoretical debate, concentrating
Britain, as they have been for many years at the Derek Hill, in his role as director of the ICA especially on the lexical difficulties that beset any
Museum of Modern Art, New York. cinema, recently risked his first 'difficult' investigator of the field chosen in my book - but
programme, with John Du Cane (a regular then to throw in insults of a much earthier
Gilbert and George writer on film for Time Out) presenting three of consistency, i.e. sling mud. Words like
My prejudice and convictions both oppose me his own films and one by Roger Hammond. picaresque and squalor tell the reader more about
to Gilbert and George. Their art is gestural, His films, Aspect, Lensless and Frame, all made the state of the Art-Language group
symptomatic and opportunistic, all of my in '72, explore specific aspects of camera subconscious than about Hurrell's immediate
judgement tells me that their work is bad and procedure. In Lensless the image is always targets.
even dangerous. . . but, I am always intrigued subdivided into four equal quadrants, If Hurrell wished to argue that my conception
and entertained by what they do. Three short achieved by filming with an 8mm camera, but of social responsibility was 'largely offensive', he
pieces for television: Sony videotapes, each projecting the 'un-slit' 8mm as 16mm (therefore should first have outlined what he takes that
piece in a limited edition of twenty-five, four 8mm frames per 16mm picture). For almost conception to be. Otherwise he is merely
complete with certificate/plaque, signed, to all the film the camera was used without a lens, making a rude noise. Is he offended by my
certify that the tape you have is genuine, worth recording only the broadest camera movements acknowledgments to Raymond William's social
the £250 you paid for it, and not some identical and generalized colour areas with no sharp criticism ? or by my mention of the
but worthless copy made by an unscrupulous division . . . . an image of counteracting socio-political commitment of certain artists,
pirate art dealer. In the Bush—single take, long movements of delicate blue, blue/grey and scientists and technologists in recent years ? or
shot of tall trees presumably in a large garden, white, the screen subdivision like lead-lines in what ?
G and G move hyper-casually in and out of view an abstract, rhythmic stained-glass. q JONATHAN BENTHALL
amongst the foliage. Even at that distance, MALCOLM LE GRICE London WII
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