Tapetail Presents:
Some Works from the Number Series
Madison Brookshire
Saturday, July 12, 2o25 7pm

Works in the Number Series involve slowly shifting fields of color using 16mm films in a multiple projector setup. Perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, this can create a kind of stasis. Films that are structurally symmetrical and projected one on top of the other at times have the effect of “canceling each other out,” or rather, creating an uncanny kind of stillness out of movement. For instance, in No. 2, when the two individual films—one fading from green to red and the other from red to green—are projected on top of one another, instead of an intensely saturated color, they produce no color, or rather, an opaque white. I say “opaque” because usually when we use celluloid, the color that comes closest to white is created by the absence of emulsion, clear film; here, however, one can sense that this color is not the result of absence (no emulsion), but fullness, doubling (color upon color). Therefore, double projection results in an uncanny experience of color as both presence and absence, a negation that is generative.

No two 16mm projectors run at exactly the same speed. When using multiple projectors, the images also do not perfectly overlap. Instead of eliding these discrepancies, these contingencies form an important part of the Number Series. For instance, when the projections overlap, the repetition and variation in their graduated shifts of color at times have the effect of canceling each other out (i.e. they become mostly white or gray), but there are moments when individual projections reveal the saturated fields of color lying “beneath” so to speak. There is also an intensely active penumbra of color around the central image.