Dots 1 & 3 c. late 1960s

Curator: Here we have Paul Sharits’ “Dots 1 & 3,” composed of film strips laid out on what appears to be a stark white surface. It's a curious arrangement. Editor: It feels…clinical, almost detached, like a diagram of movement or a deconstructed narrative. Are these literal film reels? Curator: Indeed. Sharits, known for his structural films, is laying bare the material itself. The film strips, with their individual frames visible, become sculptural elements. The means of production, quite literally. Editor: It makes me think about the fleeting nature of cinema, trapping movement and light, the way the frame constrains a story. Like shadows, they’re present and gone with the same breath. Curator: Precisely. Sharits is challenging the illusion of cinema, forcing us to confront the physical reality behind the spectacle, the artifice. Think about the labor involved in producing this… Editor: It's less about story and more about the raw, fragmented bits of a would-be one. Curator: Agreed. It really makes you consider the relationship between materiality and our perceptions. Editor: Yes, and how Sharits asks us to look deeper, beyond the silver screen's flicker.