The Text of Light

"All that is, is light." This idea by the Neoplatonic philosopher Johannes Scottus Eriugena and a line of verse by the poet William Blake, "to see a world in a grain of sand", inspired Stan Brakhage to make a film about the element that underlies every cinematographic experience: Light. By shooting the entire film through a tinted glass ashtray, Brakhage explored how light refracts when it hits different surfaces and textures. The unusual, thick ca-meral lens blurs all objects into colourful abstractions - waves of light not only travel through this unusual space, but become space itself, while the silence invites meditation. Brakhage himself is said to have described THE TEXT OF LIGHT as one of his favourite films. (Jurij Meden)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum