Tiger Balm (1972) by Hollis Frampton
Saturday, February 11, 1984, 8:00 pm
Hollis Frampton: The Magellan Cycle
Tiger Balm, 1972, 10 min.; Magellan’s First Dream, 1978, 25 min.; The Straits of Magellan, 1975-79, 60 min.
Films from Hollis Frampton’s ongoing magnum opus, The Magellan Cycle, are rarely seen. These films are not in distribution and have not been shown publicly for several years. The Straits of Magellan is a reel of 60 one-minute films (of which 720 are projected for the complete cycle) designed to be shown daily over the one-year span of the cycle’s presentation. Of Tiger Balm Frampton writes, “My clock seems to be running backwards: after two years of massive didacticism in black-and-white, I am surprised by Tiger Balm, lyrical, in color, a celebration of generative humors and principles, in homage to the green of England, the light in my doorway… and consecutive matters.”