Systemic forms in the work of Hollis Frampton
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51359/2763-8693.2025.267239Keywords:
Hollis Frampton, structural film, North-American avant-garde, serialism, encyclopediaAbstract
The article takes as its starting point the discussions around the “structural films”, first theorized by P. Adams Sitney, in order to analyze how the North-American filmmaker Hollis Frampton utilizes forms such as the series, the inventory, and the encyclopedia, both in his films and in his writings. The different stages of Frampton’s career are considered, noting the recurrence of compositional modes such as variation, permutation and listing, from earlier films such as Manual of Arms (1966), through the most emblematic moment of his career, between Zorns Lemma (1970) and the Hapax Legomena cycle (1970-72), until later films such as Winter Solstice (1974), including articles such as “For a Metahistory of Film” and reflections on photographers, especially Paul Strand and Edward Weston. We also note the polarity between closed and open sets incorporated in Magellan, the project which marks the last phase of Frampton's work.
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