In the vein of structural film, often characterized by a preoccupation with form, structure, and material rather than filmic narrative, Owen Land’s Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, and Dirt Particles focuses on the materiality of the film medium by revealing the inner workings of the actual material of film. This work consists of two Kodak test frames of a blinking woman, which typically would have been used in the laboratory to grade color and density. Land (born George Landow 1944–2011), however, uses these found film “objects”–– readymades of a sort––as filmic material; the work consists of a 16mm loop of off-center test frames. Landow explained: “This film takes the view that certain defining characteristics of the medium, such as those mentioned in the title, are visually ‘worthy’” (Dixon, 1997). Because the film lacks cinematic narrative, the viewer’s attention is directed toward the sprockets and dirt particles appearing throughout. Like Zen for Film, the work is inherently indeterminate and subject to chance occurrences. —LH

Image: Courtesy Estate Owen Land and Office Baroque, Brussels.