Open the Door: An Incision
Paul Sharits
1966
Open the Door: An Incision
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Best known for his avant-garde filmmaking, Paul Sharits was a leading figure of the Structural Film movement, alongside artists such as Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow. His work explored the material conditions of ...
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Open the Door: An Incision
Paul Sharits
1966
Bloomington: Indiana University
Accordion-folded with blue crêpe paper
17 × 24.4 cm

Best known for his avant-garde filmmaking, Paul Sharits was a leading figure of the Structural Film movement, alongside artists such as Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow. His work explored the material conditions of cinema itself. As Sharits declared:




"I wish to abandon imitation and illusion and enter directly into the higher drama of: celluloid, two-dimensional strips; individual rectangular frames; the nature of sprockets and emulsion; projector operations; the three-dimensional light beam; environmental illumination; the two-dimensional reflective screen surface; the retinal screen, optic nerve and individual psycho-physical subjectivities of consciousness." (Sharits in his statement for the Fourth International Experimental Film Festival in Knokke-le-Zoute, 1967)




This accordion-folded publication translates Sharits's aesthetic and theoretical investigations into montage into book form. Here, the strip of film is replaced by blue crêpe paper that unfolds sequentially, evoking the temporal and spatial experience of projected film. The title and the book's physical structure explore ideas of cutting and interruption through folding and tearing.


 


The striking electric blue may allude to Sharits's parallel investigations with colour as a structural element in cinema. In the same year, he published "Red, Blue, Godard" (Film Quarterly, vol. 19, Summer 1966), one of his earliest essays devoted to the expressive and formal role of colour in the films of Jean-Luc Godard.

Bloomington: Indiana University
Accordion-folded with blue crêpe paper
17 × 24.4 cm

Best known for his avant-garde filmmaking, Paul Sharits was a leading figure of the Structural Film movement, alongside artists such as Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow. His work explored the material conditions of cinema itself. As Sharits declared:


"I wish to abandon imitation and illusion and enter directly into the higher drama of: celluloid, two-dimensional strips; individual rectangular frames; the nature of sprockets and emulsion; projector operations; the three-dimensional light beam; environmental illumination; the two-dimensional reflective screen surface; the retinal screen, optic nerve and individual psycho-physical subjectivities of consciousness." (Sharits in his statement for the Fourth International Experimental Film Festival in Knokke-le-Zoute, 1967)


This accordion-folded publication translates Sharits's aesthetic and theoretical investigations into montage into book form. Here, the strip of film is replaced by blue crêpe paper that unfolds sequentially, evoking the temporal and spatial experience of projected film. The title and the book's physical structure explore ideas of cutting and interruption through folding and tearing.

 

The striking electric blue may allude to Sharits's parallel investigations with colour as a structural element in cinema. In the same year, he published "Red, Blue, Godard" (Film Quarterly, vol. 19, Summer 1966), one of his earliest essays devoted to the expressive and formal role of colour in the films of Jean-Luc Godard.

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Best known for his avant-garde filmmaking, Paul Sharits was a leading figure of the Structural Film movement, alongside artists such as Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow. His work explored the material conditions of cinema itself. As Sharits declared:


"I wish to abandon imitation and illusion and enter directly into the higher drama of: celluloid, two-dimensional strips; individual rectangular frames; the nature of sprockets and emulsion; projector operations; the three-dimensional light beam; environmental illumination; the two-dimensional reflective screen surface; the retinal screen, optic nerve and individual psycho-physical subjectivities of consciousness." (Sharits in his statement for the Fourth International Experimental Film Festival in Knokke-le-Zoute, 1967)


This accordion-folded publication translates Sharits's aesthetic and theoretical investigations into montage into book form. Here, the strip of film is replaced by blue crêpe paper that unfolds sequentially, evoking the temporal and spatial experience of projected film. The title and the book's physical structure explore ideas of cutting and interruption through folding and tearing.

 

The striking electric blue may allude to Sharits's parallel investigations with colour as a structural element in cinema. In the same year, he published "Red, Blue, Godard" (Film Quarterly, vol. 19, Summer 1966), one of his earliest essays devoted to the expressive and formal role of colour in the films of Jean-Luc Godard.

Bloomington: Indiana University
Accordion-folded with blue crêpe paper
17 × 24.4 cm

Best known for his avant-garde filmmaking, Paul Sharits was a leading figure of the Structural Film movement, alongside artists such as Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow. His work explored the material conditions of cinema itself. As Sharits declared:


"I wish to abandon imitation and illusion and enter directly into the higher drama of: celluloid, two-dimensional strips; individual rectangular frames; the nature of sprockets and emulsion; projector operations; the three-dimensional light beam; environmental illumination; the two-dimensional reflective screen surface; the retinal screen, optic nerve and individual psycho-physical subjectivities of consciousness." (Sharits in his statement for the Fourth International Experimental Film Festival in Knokke-le-Zoute, 1967)


This accordion-folded publication translates Sharits's aesthetic and theoretical investigations into montage into book form. Here, the strip of film is replaced by blue crêpe paper that unfolds sequentially, evoking the temporal and spatial experience of projected film. The title and the book's physical structure explore ideas of cutting and interruption through folding and tearing.

 

The striking electric blue may allude to Sharits's parallel investigations with colour as a structural element in cinema. In the same year, he published "Red, Blue, Godard" (Film Quarterly, vol. 19, Summer 1966), one of his earliest essays devoted to the expressive and formal role of colour in the films of Jean-Luc Godard.

MORE BOOKS

Best known for his avant-garde filmmaking, Paul Sharits was a leading figure of the Structural Film movement, alongside artists such as Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, and Michael Snow. His work explored the material conditions of cinema itself. As Sharits declared:


"I wish to abandon imitation and illusion and enter directly into the higher drama of: celluloid, two-dimensional strips; individual rectangular frames; the nature of sprockets and emulsion; projector operations; the three-dimensional light beam; environmental illumination; the two-dimensional reflective screen surface; the retinal screen, optic nerve and individual psycho-physical subjectivities of consciousness." (Sharits in his statement for the Fourth International Experimental Film Festival in Knokke-le-Zoute, 1967)


This accordion-folded publication translates Sharits's aesthetic and theoretical investigations into montage into book form. Here, the strip of film is replaced by blue crêpe paper that unfolds sequentially, evoking the temporal and spatial experience of projected film. The title and the book's physical structure explore ideas of cutting and interruption through folding and tearing.

 

The striking electric blue may allude to Sharits's parallel investigations with colour as a structural element in cinema. In the same year, he published "Red, Blue, Godard" (Film Quarterly, vol. 19, Summer 1966), one of his earliest essays devoted to the expressive and formal role of colour in the films of Jean-Luc Godard.

MORE BOOKS