A Million Keys

Adam Beckett


Kitsch in Synch

Two weeks ago, I caught the “Heavy Light” video program at Deitch, organized by Takeshi Murata.

Part of the screening included a number of films (on 16mm!) by ’70s experimental animator Adam Beckett. Apparently the evening marked the New York debut of Canyon Cinema’s recent restoration of his prints. I hadn’t heard of Beckett’s work before the event, but my friend Nate Boyce talked him up quite a bit.

According to Nate, Beckett has remained a somewhat obscure figure, largely due to the fact that he passed away early in his career, in 1979 at the age of 27. His animations were meticulously hand drawn, like Dear Janice which featured layers of seemingly hundreds of intricate rotating patterns and shapes.


Dear Janice

I was surprised to discover that Beckett’s piece Heavy Light was also an animation. The undulating red, green, and blue waves recalled the Vasulka’s work from the early 1970s, and almost everyone I spoke to afterwards thought it was an analog video piece. According to Canyon Cinema, Beckett used 13 drawings and a technique he developed for the optical camera to produce the effect. The score, written by composer Carl Stone, was a successful part of the work. It further dramatized the movement of the light and contributed to a feeling of momentum.


Heavy Light