Some Thoughts

In Act/React exhibition, Deep Walls is an art work that interests me because Scott Snibbe creatively integrates simple elements into the work producing dynamic images. Silhouette of visitor’s movements in separated frames is one element, while juxtaposition of frames is another element that serves as the complement. Nathaniel Dorsky’s Three Songs: Song and Solitude, Winter and Sarabande are three silent films which present breathtaking images even though most of them are mundane outdoor landscapes. Similarly, there are two characters that function together to promote the dynamics in these films. Although silent, Dorsky’s films speak to viewer in powerful images with extraordinary saturated in color and superimposition of texture. Whether showing the landscapes reflected on the window, or the flowers in the brush, his images are on a splendor level. I even have the illusion that I am looking at strong paintings due to their powerful colors. Another character for these films is that two scenes are superimposed in one frame. Branches in one scene would interweave with furniture in another scene. The superimposition creates a magical effect that as if viewers are looking at transparent glass that one behind another. The images seem to be printed on the glass. There is one scene in Sarabande that there are some drops on a window. Each drop not only reflects lights to different angles, but also reflects the distorted images of building, people and surrounding decorations on its hemispherical surface. Besides that, the color and texture of the flowers on the images of another scene appear behind the window. The application of saturated color and superimposition generate a visual attraction to viewer’s eyes. As images are shown continually, a flowing color in the screen involves me into this world. After I watched his all three films that night, I couldn’t remember a single image. But when I closed my eyes, I could feel the dynamics that provided by the integration by these two characters.

The striking color of images from Dorsky’s Three Songs leads me to think about Deep Walls. At a glance, Deep Walls and Three Songs can be significant different regarding the images. The former is a group of black-and-white images featuring ever-changing movements. The latter are vivid color images without extraordinary movement. Yet they have similarities in a surprise way. Deep Walls applies the juxtaposition of sixteen frames on a screen that each frame presents moving images. Three Songs integrate two scenes into one frame. The movement in one scene would appear more dramatically with the superimposition of another scene. For example, with the existence of another scene which serves as an extra background or foreground, the angles of the reflected lights are enlarged in our eyes. The images of superimposed scenes produce a flowing color and movement without showing many moving objects. In a nutshell, Snibbe and Dorsky apply elements that I mention above to enhance the complexity of composition in images in order to create the dynamics. Snibbe intends to involve visitors into his art work by focusing on the movements in his images, while Dorsky allows viewers to see through the screen as a window to a vivid world.

It is interesting to imagine the situation that Deep Walls and Three Songs are projected on one screen. Apparently there will be huge conflicts between two works on several levels. Deep Walls is an installation art work and the images are recorded by digital camera, while Three Songs are motion pictures filmed in 16 mm film. The characteristics of images are different. Contrasts would be made between saturated color and black-and-white, juxtaposition of frames and superimposed images in one frame. For Deep Walls, viewers would easily notice two elements that I mentioned in paper#2: silhouette and frames, which generate the dynamics. For Three Songs, gay images play a key role in drawing viewer’s attention. The contribution to the floating of the color from other factors such as montage editing cannot be denied, yet the feeling of the floating color is driven by superimposition greatly. This may be a little more difficult to discover. For an understanding of all these elements and their functions in Deep Walls and Three Songs, I need to pay attentions and devote my thinking. So at last, I realized that approaches that used to produce complexity, dynamics, and perspective illusion or to enlarge angles vary from work to work. However, the goal of the artists is to create a work that can trigger a viewer’s active thoughts.
Click to see information of Dorsky's films.