Ballett 16

My interest in the individual frame as constituting the core of filmic creation found early expression in several works based on static images or photographic frame enlargements, including Liebesfilm (1982), Sechs über Eins (1982) and Motion Picture (1984).

In the case of Ballett 16, 256 frame enlargements of a continuous dance movement were dissected into 16 segments, each consisting of 16 frames. These segments were rearranged and re-photographed frame-by-frame. The resulting synthetic composition of movement was re-photographed off a screen running at twice its normal speed in order to accelerate the final film. Peter Tscherkassky