I recently picked up the new issue of F.R. David and after a few years break, Will Holder’s project (which began over 10 years ago) continues to connect and inspire in unusual ways the interface between art, design and writing.
Included in this, the 13th issue called “Inverted Commas”, which, among other delights, offers an extended meditation on The Registry of Pseudonyms (where is Plato, by the way?), is a series of stills from Harun Farocki’s 1995 video work Schnittstelle (Interface).
The stills that Holder has selected are from a section in this 25 minute focus on Farocki’s discussion of a work of ancient sculpture: the so-called “Kritian Boy”.
To see for yourself, you can order F.R. David direct from Holder’s new publishing project Uh Books here – for free shipping in 2017. As I would hate to spoil your experience of reading for yourself, leaving you the core while eating the apple, as it were, in this post I will lead you to another moment in Farocki’s engagement with ancient art.
His work Parallel I-IV (2012-2015) that explored the development of computer animation. The first episode focuses on natural forms of trees, fire, water and clouds, ending with the narrator invoking the story of Zeuxis and his realistic painting of grapes. Inspired by the stills of the recent F.R. David issue, here is a transcription of the narration inserted into a series of stills (with their order – of both image and text – slightly manipulated from the original).
If you are curious about the “original”, you can watch the relevant clip of Parallel I for yourself by clicking here.