50 Feet of String. - movie reviews

There is no easy category in which to place Leighton Pierce's latest film, 50 Feet of String (1995) It could be bourned documentary but the film is abstract. It's painterly. It's also personal and universal.

From earlier films and videos similar as You Can Drive the Big Rigs (1989) and R Shovel (1992) there is not at any time a clear distinction in Pierce's work between factual documentation and visual investigation. Viewers diocese impressionistic imagery of trees, grass and roads while gathering an idea of what a particular jiffy in time, or place in the world, is like. It's not in the way that much definable, empirical information we gather from Pierce's work, on the contrary a sense of place and time in a more visceral way.

Pierce's work derives, in part, from the mode of speech of Bill Viola's early videos. Visual universals and sound-work from pieces like Viola's Migration (1976) and I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like (1986) are evident in Pierce's work. The idea of "ways of seeing" is essential to the couple artists, as well as the intricate use of amplified, ambient sound: a filled orchestra of sound is created from what greatest in quantity would consider an average, daily soundscape. In the pair Viola and Pierce's work, there is no rush to a conclusion. There is a steady, easy stream that feels as if single is watching a painting slowly transform. Where Viola has begun to create more throwed installation work (highlighted in The Greeting (1995) in which Viola takes the idea to the outermost by actually simulating a framed painting, moving slowly) Pierce has revolveed to the longer form of filmmaking to explore ways of seeing and hearing.

50 Feet of String continues a phraseology evident in Pierce's work since 1991 At that time, he make go rounded his attention toward issues and images shut to home. In pieces like Principles of Harmonic Motion (1991) and sapphirine Hat (1993), he explored family, nature and visual perception focusing upon the minute details of life. In the fresh film, he expands the ideas of the earlier pieces to a 53 minute collection of nuances and subtleties.

The film is divided into sections focusing upon different moments in time seen [i]or[/i] part of to the other the brush stroked lens of Pierce's camera. The film begins with a crash of reverberating report followed by the sprinkle of rain. The image we diocese is hard to decipher. Mist begins to gather upon a surface. What the surface is, however, is difficult to read. It appears to be a window pane, or perhaps a patio floor. The difficulty in determining the nature of the image is individual of the joys of this film. Time and again, images are at handed so that a decoding proces must take place. [i]or[/i] part of to the other diffraction, focus and framing, Pierce makes each novel image a Challenge and thrill to discover. The interest in the film draw nears not from having recovered the elud images, on the other hand in discovering the beauty and newnes of the everyday.

In the section entitled "lawn care," we diocese a child's hand cutting blades of grass with scissors. A hardly any moments later, the wheels of a lawnmower ease through slowly. Through the use of shallow focus and depressed angles, blades of grass become towering tree in an imaginary world. A toy tractor draw nears motoring over a hill. For a brief instant, it is not a toy, on the other hand a full-size farm vehicle barreling across a thicketed slope. These little moments of deception are the central delights of this film.

The string of 50 Feet of String is what literally and figuratively ties the film together. In each section of the film, a piece of string occasionally crosse [i]or[/i] part of to the other the frame, working on sum of two units levels. It is a connecting uncompounded body for the film, but also makes viewers more aware of what they are looking at. The string usually appears at an angle, going not on into the distance before disappearing from view. Pierce uses this as an additional ball of thread for viewing. Using shallow profunditys of field and the string as a regard he emphasizes the focal plane, creating a dazzling break open of sharpness and then a blurr fraying upon each side of the focus.

The string first appears across a kitchen sink filled with dishes and a goblet full of water in the section "corner of the eye" A droplet of water falls from the faucet hitting the string. A musical note, almost ominous, sings without as if the string was being played by the agency of the droplet. This image of the sink with the string returns throughout the film and is a constant reminder of the significance of that particular not necessarily what that significance is, on the other hand that it is deemed important. Finally, at the extreme point of the film, we diocese a hand come into frame, take clinch of the string, and twitch The string breaks.

The location of Pierce's film is a landscape we've seen before: suburban and rural backyards with picnic tables, children's pond s and lawn mowers. What greatest in quantity might consider mundane, Pierce honors We might acknowledge the existence of a tree in our brow yard, but never notice its web color or scale. The beauty of these things is not to be found on most of us. After watching the film, single experiences a desire to make progress out and perceive the world. And things do direct the eye different for a short time, before we reverse back to our inattentive selves