Bildrausch Filmfest Basel 10, Catalogue 2021

The images that Bill Morrison gives a second
aesthetic life in his works can never be too old.
Often, the celluloid strips, which he discovers in
the archives with the instinct of an archaeologist,
barely reveal what they once were, or what story
they once told. In the eyes of Morrison, film is an
undertow of material, montage and music. It is
poetry. And it is decay. His works reflect an intimate
preoccupation with nitrocellulose film,
which produces images of breath-taking beauty:
the trained painter exploits the natural decom position
of original silent films, where heat, moisture
or mould have left their mark. He creates slow
motion and repetition and often stages his works
in parallel to the music on the soundtrack, which
at times is the film's starting point, at times its
protagonist, and often both. What's more: through
Morrison's virtuoso imagery, the hypnotic pieces
by composers such as Yo La Tengo, Bill Frisell
or Lambchop become initiators of a cinematic
narration that is chafed by friction, searches for
synergies and finds its sensual and surreal power
in contrasts and collisions. Bildrausch is showing
a cross-section of this remarkable oeuvre: alongside
early works such as Death Train (1994) or The
Film of Her (1996) about seeing and decaying are
gentle romances such as Light is Calling (2004)
and The Ring (2021), which always bear within
them a deep love of cinema itself. In addition,
the forces of nature, history and evolution find
their way into the works. The films that Morrison
creates from disused images always exhibit both
an archaic vehemence and a strong modern element
at the same time.(pj)
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BILL MORRISON‘S HYPNOTIC
PICTURES