Timing

In ten minutes with no sound, a white cloth is seen to disappear four times, as if moved by a ghostly hand. This all becomes stranger and stranger as the film goes on—as a result of a specific recording technique. Four different versions are edited together here. The first can be most easily explained, in the words of the artist, Dora Maurer: “A piece of white linen against a black background is folded in seven steps, every time beginning at the front and adding one more fold, seven in all. The proportions of the cloth are like those of a 16 mm film frame, the longer edge is as long as my stretched-out arms.” In the second version half of the image is covered with a mask, in the third version a quarter, and in the fourth version an eighth. The film is then wound back, the mask is moved, and the film is taken again. The bright flashing lights that you can see in the film arise when the film is wound back. The various recordings are not quite synchronous, and temporal shifts are clearly seen. Here, perception becomes a question of timing—as the title of the work indicates. The artist also transferred her film into photography. She selected a 50 cm long strip of film from each of the four versions. The single frames—the single film images—were mounted onto four plates. In contrast to the film, here the order of perception is not given in advance and the timing and sequence remain in our hands. This opens up aesthetic potential. Dóra Maurer has presented her intensive exploration of phenomena of shifts in space, time, and perception in different media—not only film and photography, but also painting and prints.