Colorforms: Paul Sharitis

I arrived at the Hirshhorn right when the doors opened so that I could view the Colorforms show ahead of the Sunday crowd. I headed straight downstairs as the guard pointed towards the elevator and suggested to everyone else that they head to the top floor and work their way down.  I said a silent “thank you” and for the second time in 20 minutes thought, “The universe sure knows how to take care of me!” (The first time was when I pulled right up to a free parking spot less than a block from the museum.)

As I sat alone on the floor listening to high-pitched  clicking and whirling while watching colors dance across the wall,  I wondered if there was anyone that wouldn’t be  completely mesmerized by Paul Sharits’ film “Shutter Interface“.   I really must have been tuned into the universe that day because as quickly as the question  popped into my head I had my answer.

A group of high school kids entered, watched the film for a second or two, and then put on an impromptu performance of their own.  They moved and jumped and giggled all while starring back into the lights of the projector not the colors being projected on the wall.  They applauded each other and as quickly as they appeared they disappeared.

My inner art critic piped up with, “Too bad they missed the point”.  As I thought about their reaction and the purpose of the piece in the artist own words I wondered if maybe I was the one that in some way had missed the point.  Art is all about evoking a response after all.

When I got home I did an Internet search to see what more I could learn about Sharitis and his work with film.  I found an article that I enjoyed on Frieze Magazine and it was illustrated with this sketch by the artist.  You can also learn more about Paul Sharitis here.

Paul Sharits, Study 4: Shutter Interface (optimal arrangement) (1975) (via Frieze Magazine)

An excerpt from the Frieze Magazine review of Paul Sharits’ film “Shutter Interface”

If any film installation can be compared to an endlessly prolonged execution of cinematic illusion by firing squad, it’s Paul Sharits’ Shutter Interface (1975). In this hypnotic work – recently restored by Greene Naftali and Anthology Film Archives to its long-unseen, four-screen version – a quartet of 16mm projectors stand, figure-like, side by side on imposing pedestals facing a long wall. Four looped films of varying lengths are unspooled and respooled in jewel-like swathes of colour interspersed with single black frames, creating the flicker effect Sharits – who died in 1993 – was the first to explore in colour films. The images thrown onto the wall overlap at their edges, producing ghostly paler bands where hues mix within the wide polychrome rectangle, complicating patterns that emerge like waves, horizontal pulses or, more eerily, cards shuffled by invisible hands. When the black interstices disrupt the chromatic flood, the soundtracks emit high-frequency, cicada-like tones via speakers placed underneath the projected images, aurally mirroring the whirling shutters.  Continue reading the review…

A couple of the pictures I snapped are below.  If you want to get a slower motion view of some of the film you can see my entire slide show our flickr page.  Some of the color combinations in the individual frames are really great

Seeing the film via still photos or YouTube is a great preview but you don’t get the impact of the colors and sound when viewing on such a small scale.   If you are in DC this year go to  the Coloforms exhibit at Hirshhorn Museum through January 2011  You can learn more about the exhibit on the Smithsonian blog.

PS~Don’t forget to get there early, give the guard a knowing grin and head straight downstairs rather than up.