The Visible Compendium1991

THE VISIBLE COMPENDIUM constructs bits of unnamed meanings, fragments of light. Photography is, to me, not about things, but about light. Light is our primary reality when we are at the movies – light which suggests things, the secondary reality, a construct by the mind. THE VISIBLE COMPENDIUM attempts to engage the mind, and particularly what is unknown in the mind, rather than what has been seen and known a thousand times over. THE VISIBLE COMPENDIUM reaches farther than any of my other animations. It goes off in many directions, held together, hopefully, by the soundtrack, which itself goes off in a number of directions: strange sounds, some recognizable, others not. Some music. No voices, no silence. This is intentional. The film is a compendium, as indicated in the title – a catalog of visible possible experiences, some at normal time, some speeded up or slowed down, some continuous, others broken up. Why? Tough question. Why not? Why not experiment with different modes of visible motion? (And, I might add, totally manufactured bits of motion elucidated by the light of the projector.) For instance, when the nude woman with the towel walks across the screen, the image broken up with flashes, close-ups, erratic zooms, etc. – to express the soundtrack (which was in place before the animation), and partly to express those unspoken "meanings" I mentioned above. "Images in THE VISIBLE COMPENDIUM are just as stunningly beautiful as ever." – Gunvor Nelson "[His] Compendium is a perfect counter part, it seems to me, to the placement of Sophia's length and breadth, in so much as this new work presents dreams of the chores and diversions of the human world – lacerated by two meditations on War: the 1st, an almost endless rain of missiles on an ancient chariot, the 2nd, [his] wondrous clown dancing on battleship cannons – Bravo! Nothing could be clearer on the subject (especially welcome at this time); and in-between (as suggested slightly before and slightly after) a feelsome balance spectrum of dreamed dailiness finally exposed as – if one can but see it as [he has]–the greatest show on Earth." – Stan Brakhage