OPTIC NERVE

The fragility of the 16mm film medium, the pollution of light, and the demise of the filmmaker are explored in Optic Nerve.

“Barbara Hammer’s Optical Nerves is a powerful personal reflection on family and aging. Hammer employs filmed footage which, through optical printing and editing, is layered and manipulated to create a compelling meditation on her visit to her grandmother in a nursing home. The sense of sight becomes a constantly evolving process of reseeing images retrieved from the past and fused into the eternal present of the projected image. Hammer has lent a new voice to the long tradition of personal meditation in the avant-garde of the American independent cinema.”
— John Hanhardt, Biennial Exhibition Catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1987

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