‘Imagine an eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception. How many colours are there in a field of grass to the crawling baby unaware of ‘green’? How many rainbows can light create for the untutored eye?’ –Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage made over 300 films over the course of his life and developed an idea he called ‘The Untutored Eye’, mentioned above. He would paint, scratch and manipulate the celluloid itself and create purely visual images. The films lack any sound, the hypnotic whirring of the projector being the only sound meant to be perceived alongside the films. Some of his most notable works I have seen are Mothlight, The Dante Quartet and Stellar. I think this is because you can place a certain degree of signified meaning to them. Stellar for example can be imagined as cosmic happenings and The Dante Quartet a journey through Alighieri’s Inferno a story I am very fond of. Mothlight is different however, he applied moth wings, grass blades, flowers and more onto the celluloid and projected it, this was very radical but also proves very beautiful. I think it calls into question the images we see on a screen and how they are just representations. I equate it to Rene Magritte’s ‘This is not a pipe’ in the way it questions images and their signifier/signified relationship to an audience. I find it fascinatingly tactile and rough around the edges, the film whizzes along with the wings and flowers flashing onscreen, in silence. It is fascinating to see the real presence of those subjects presented in the film as opposed to light burnt into the celluloid.
A truly real and physical showing of flowers in Mothlight
An image of flowers burned in light.
If I was to find fault with Brakhage’s approach I would say that I find it relatively underwhelming at times, though it is no doubt revolutionary and inspiring, as a whole piece I find they rush by without much change within myself except the few films I’ve mentioned. Brakhage would try and work in a way where if he saw within the frame something that could be attributed to an object or concept he wouldn’t use it because it went against what he stood for: having the eye experience something separate from the brain. I think to break away from his methods I really like the idea of having the fabric of the film breakdown and be called into question, breaking the fourth wall, having it devolve into his style of pure visual splendour instead of using it for the entire film.
Transcendence 