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L'art du Mouvement 1919-1996, 1996.
Pat O'Neill biography
Dr. William Moritz
Pat O'Neill studied fine arts, and has enjoyed succesful gallery expositions of his sculptures and still photography (which often involves layered imagery, or ironic surreal juxtapositions in a simple snapshot). Throughout his career he continues to make installations in art galleries (e.g., Screen, 1969; Two Sweeps, 1977; Let's Make a Sandwich, 1982) which involve not only looped film projections but also sculptural elements. He began filmmaking as an extension of photography with a "documentary" By the Sea (1962), co-produced with Bob Abel (who later became famous for his advertising films), for the finale of which O'Neill printed images of beach activities on high-contrast film for a dazzling sun effect, and edited them in crisp dynamic rhythms. His 1966 7362 (named after a high-contrast film stock) uses the potentials of a contact printer to layer images, and film emulsions to give special textures to them; its mixed imagery of oil pumps and a nude woman transform, in various episodes, into soft sensuous or vibrant hard-edged abstractions.
In a series of five films (Runs Good, 1970; Easyout, 1971; Down Wind, 1973; Saugus Series, 1974; and Sidewinder's Delta, 1976) O'Neill created one of the most complex and engaging studies of contemporary consciousness: with optical printing, individual images are synthesized from several different elements derived from various sources -- some older found-footage and others carefully shot scenes -- which modulate regularly and raise issues of perception and analysis. Individual scenes contain ambiguous spatial clues, and the collage of imagery both in space and time imbalances contradictory responses of accepting illusory depth-perception of "reality" and anecdotal representation versus experiencing purely abstract push-pull of colors and shapes. Intricate sound collages and occasional written texts reinforce these optical equivocations, and the regular reoccurrence of certain patterns of imagery -- serene time-lapses of landscape, animal behavior, cactus, exhibitions -- urge the viewer to reconsider at every turn. In the most complex of these films, Saugus Series, seven discrete numbered episodes add more tension to the mix, for a sound from one sequence may occur five minutes later accompanying an "unrelated" image, which the formalized divisions both seem to forbid and make more obvious. The juxtaposition of eclectic imagery in these films abounds with great wit, tough irony, and a deep humanity that, for example, can see human folly and nostalgia as parallel to the compulsions and dignity of animals. Frequent evocations of the fine arts tradition also range from paradoxical shots of museum artworks displayed in cases like encaged show animals to the incandescent scene of a pair of O'Neill's boots being painted in time lapse, recalling Van Gogh's canvas of his boots, and Rudy Burckhardt's photo of Jackson Pollock's spattered boots.
O'Neill has continued to make short lyrical films, as well as an hour-long 35mm film, Water and Power (1989), which uses his same personal style of optically-printed montage and time lapse to focus on his native Los Angeles as an environment. He is currently working on another feature-length film in the same genre.
Moritz, William. "Pat O'Neill." L'art du Mouvement 1919-1996. Ed. Jean-Michel Bouhours, Cinéma du Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris: Centre Pompidou, 1996, 347-348.
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