Overlapping Planes (1975)

Handling

Overlapping Planes, all in negative image, begins with a completely white frame. A dark line appears at the top, proceeding downward: the surface of the paper is being cut from behind by Haxton. Two more incisions are made behind and then two alternate strips of paper are cut off horizontally and removed. Haxton then cuts incisions in a sheet of black paper hanging behind the sheet of white, directly behind the two missing slats. When he removes these, the frame is white again. He then cuts off the two white strips remaining in front, revealing the two posterior strips of black he had left. Finally, he removes these black strips so that the frame is white again. The film works with the relation between the flatness of the projected film and the depth one reads into a known spatial context.