A programme of works which use the material of film itself as a canvas. These visceral, vibrant films feature camera-less techniques such as scratching, painting and printing onto the filmstrip, subjecting film to decay and decomposition, and affixing materials such as letraset or insects to its surface. The remarkable visions created through these diverse approaches fill the frame with dynamic textures and colour, and many will be presented on 16mm and 35mm prints. Seen in the cinema, these works achieve a powerful effect, immersing us in strange and previously unseen worlds, and displaying the breadth and scope of abstract film.

Balagan and the Film Study Center at Harvard proudly welcome Kevin Rice of the Colorado-based nonprofit organization, Process Reversal, to presents the third installment of a unique traveling film series – Frenkel Defects.

This recurring series aims to explore what it means to work in – and exhibit on – photochemical film today by examining works from artists operating specifically within this practice. Often, this involves getting their hands dirty at every stage of the process from optical effects to developing, editing and contact printing, optical sound recording, and even the creation of the photosensitive emulsion itself... As a result (and as suggested by the series' title), creative aberrations make their way into the standard photochemical process, giving birth to a new, textural aesthetic that plays out on the surface of the film strip. More than ever before, film reminds us of its physicality; giving a new sense to Andrei Tarkovsky’s idea of “sculpting in time.”