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Anthony McCall
During the years Anthony McCall has been living and working in the United States (he moved from Great Britain in January 1973), he has made relatively few films, but those he has made are dense with idea, particularly about the construction of the film audience and about the situation of independent filmmaking within the larger commercial culture. McCall's filmwork can be divided roughly into two periods.
During 197375, he completed a series of "solid-light" films, which seemed a natural development of his earlier interest in environmental sculpture. The first of these was
Line Describing a Cone
(1973), which was followed by three other "Cone" films
Partial Cone
(1974),
Conical Solid
(1974),
Cone of Variable Volume
(1974)and then by
Long Film for Four Projectors
(1974),
Long Film for Ambient Light
(1975), and
Four Projected Movements
(1975). The solid-light films were attempts to provide a new form of thought-provoking film pleasure. They are presented in an open gallery space, not a movie theater, and viewer attention is directed not to imagery on a screen (no screen is used), but to the light beam between the projector and the wall. During the thirty minutes of
Line Describing a Cone,
a single strand of light slowly grows into"describes"a hollow cone. Perhaps the most obvious dimension of
Line Describing a Cone
and of the other "Cone'' films is their simple, beautiful elegance as light sculptures. But for McCall this beauty was as much a means as an end. By presenting the "Cone" films in an open gallery space, McCall means to instigate a new kind of interaction between members of the film audience. As
Line Describing a Cone
develops, audience members don't merely look at it, they interact with the