Hollis Frampton Selection 1: Palindrome (1969)

While working at a photo lab, Frampton found that the waste at both ends of the rolls of processed film - where chemicals worked on the emulsion through clips used to attach the film to the machine - produced images far too interesting to be discarded. For Palindrome, Frampton selected images which he described as tending towards the biomorphic , resembling abstract surrealist painting. However, the rigid palindromic structure that Frampton imposes on the images - a motorized sequence based on twelve variations on each of forty congruent phrases - deviates from the subjective aesthetic of the expressive, demonstrating Frampton s interest in the generative power of films composed by rules and principles. Frampton on Palindrome: The menacing latin palindrome In Girvm Imvs Nocte Et Consvmimvr Igni (By night we go (down) into a gyre/and we are consumed by fire) serves as epigraph to this animated film. Anima is imparted to 12 variations on each of 40 congruent phrases, metamorphosed from the chemically mutilated flesh of color film itself. Hollis, clearly this one of your greatest films! Absolute perfection. - Stan Brakhage