VIDERE | Frame [video]

Posted on Fri., Oct. 18, 2013 by Kate Lain

Videre, Latin for to see, is a video series that plays with the idea of re-seeing. The short works featured here are explorations of sights, sounds, and sensing at The Huntington.

Ornately carved flowers finished in a burnished gold. Thin, simple, straightforward black outline. Heavy, thick, rustic hardwood stained to a deep burnt sienna. All hidden in plain sight. You’ve surely spent time gazing at paintings, photographs, prints hanging on a wall—whether in an art gallery, a museum, or in a friend’s home. But when was the last time you focused your attention on their frames? These structures—whether simple and understated or works of art in their own right—impact how we see and understand the art pieces they surround and support. Just imagine if we were to remove Pinkie from her heavily ornamented surroundings and encircle her instead with a geometric art deco frame or one of shiny, rounded, red plastic. Or consider the Huntington Frontiers story from a few years back that recounts the reframing of Frederic Edwin Church’s Chimborazo, which we deemed necessary precisely because a previous reframing of the painting had made it appear too dark (see “Framed Again,” pages 4-8). [UPDATE (Oct. 24, 2013): Read about the forthcoming reframing of The Blue Boy in "How Do You Frame a Masterpiece?".]

And so this latest addition to the Videre video series shifts our focus from the framed to the frame. There are three versions of Frame. The visuals of the three versions are identical to one another, but each is “framed” with a unique musical score written and performed by a different artist. How does your experience of the piece change with the different audio tracks? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

"Frame, v.1" (music written and performed by Dustin Zemel)