From: esperanza collado (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2007 - 12:23:35 PDT
Hi Jeremy,
This is just to reinforce what Roger said earlier. I found it in the
book "A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s":
"Samuel Beckett, the Irish author and playwright, is identified as an
influence on Nauman in the subtitle of the videotape Slow Angle Walk.
Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 in
recognition of a circular form of reasoning in his plays that implied
entrapment in circunstances of one's own design. Nauman's series of
videotapes capture the figure in action, performing a series of
rigurous movements recorded through a camera installed in a fixed
location...."
In one way or another, there are a series of films that respond to
that definition ("a circular form of reasoning in his plays that
implied entrapment in circunstances of one's own design").
Inmediately, films by Maya Deren, works by Michael Snow like Cover to
Cover and Dan Graham (Body Press, Roll), and NOTHING by Paul Sharits
come to my mind regarding that statement (and the title of Hollis
Frampton's Circles of Confusion; his films might be of interest here
too). Also I made a video in 2000 called "Internodo" which deals with
the same notion. Have a look, the quality is quite poor but you can
get an idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkpd-lyg_g
It is really a beautiful subject to investigate, but must be a tough
one to find direct connections between Beckett's line of thought -or
Film- and other film works. I wish you all the best!
Esperanza.
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