Bent Time

“A visual trip across the U.S. using an extreme wide angle lens that bends time to the edges while Hammer shoots one frame per foot of visual space traversed. The film’s length, 22 minutes, matches the time it takes sunlight to traverse a petroglyph of nine circles inscribed in rock at Ohaco Canyon, New Mexico. The film opens and closes with shots of this process and the minutes between take us from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Golden Gate. “Hammer concentrates on the condensation of space and time at high energy locations, from the rock passageways of Ohaco Canyon to the sterile tunnels of the nuclear accelerator building at Stanford University, jumping between ancient and modern corridors of energy. She speeds us across water toward Manhattan’s man-made canyons and cuts to a run across the desert toward ancient ruins. We circle the Statue of Liberty and a butte in the (150) 12 L southwest. We revolve inside the open well of tiered floors in an art museum, and beneath a tiled dome. Are we moving or is the object before us revolving! The play of light, the rhythm of repeated elements, swinging, turning, give and experience of simultaneous perceptions and ……time does bend.” – Jan Ventura, High Performance #41/42, 1988 Original composition: voice/accordion by Pauline Clivoros