Paul Sharits (1943-1993)

PAUL SHARITS (Droll/Kolbert): At the

end of the 1960s it became necessary for the

“extended cinema” people to decide 

whether they were going to be film or video

artists. Until that point video had been un-

derstood as an alter ego of film rather than

an individual medium, and the visual con-

tent of one was much the same as the other.

Transitional works, such as Scott Bartlett’s

OFFON, a hand-dyed 16-mm film of video

processed film loops, interfaced the two

media. But when Paul Sharits decided to

remain with film he found it necessary to

define his concerns in terms of the aspect of

image-making/visual comprehension that is
unique to film.

            Shutter Interface, like all Sharits’ work,

was conceived frame by frame. There are no

images as such, but each frame is colored,

usually a different color than the one on

either side of it, according to a carefully

worked out scheme. Four loops of the film

are projected onto the gallery wall, over-

lapping to form large rectangular panels at

either end and five columns, a full frame

high but a third of a frame wide, of mixed

and unmixed hues. The blends change con-

stantly in an overall flicker effect that moves

faster than the eye can register. The speed

---24 frames per second---seems further in-

creased by the closing of a shutter between

each frame, allowing the colors to appear

for only 1/48 of a second, but the shutter

action has the effect of keeping each frame

distinct from the next.

            Sharits combines his unfailing dedication

to the minutiae of filmmaking with a com-

mitment to film as a medium for visual

scanning. His work is in the tradition of

those films that are an experience in them-

selves rather than a filmed experience. It is

possible to sit in the gallery and become

completely absorbed by the sensual bom-

bardment of colored light and to be closed

off from the outside world by the white

noise popping, sound (the amplified move-

ment of the film’s holes over the projector’s

sprockets) that is audible from the small

speakers in the room.

                                   -Madeleine Burnside

ARTnews Feb 1978

P. 139