Tasks, Frames, Transmissions

Join us at e-flux Screening Room on Thursday, January 29, 2026, at 7pm for Tasks, Frames, Transmissions, a screening of seven films and videos by Richard Serra produced within the late 1960s and 1970s New York art milieu.

Conceived alongside his sculptural practice and grounded in the distinct material capacities of film and video, these works show Serra working through tightly defined set-ups, from silent 16mm films to early video. Across the program, bodily actions performed under pressure give way to works that treat perception as something measurable, before turning to the operations of transmission. It ends with a critical statement on television broadcasting, articulated through the medium’s basic elements. Several works presented in the program were realized in collaboration, including with Joan Jonas, Nancy Holt, and Carlota Schoolman, underscoring how artists’ moving image of this period often took shape through shared working relationships.

Films

Richard Serra, Hand Catching Lead (1968, 3:15 minutes, 16mm film on HD video)
In Hand Catching Lead, Serra’s first film, his right hand is in frame as he tries to catch pieces of lead as they are dropped through the frame. The hand opens and closes as it tries to grasp the falling lead, growing more and more weary with repeated attempts; the strain becomes more evident as the film progresses. While the action is sequential, it is never redundant for there appears to be a succession of still images: each time Serra tries to catch the lead his hand is in a slightly different position. Because of the tight framing, the hand also looks as though it is trying to grasp the edges of the frame, and its clasp accentuates the horizontality of the single frame against the vertical movement of the film.

Richard Serra, Tina Turning (1969, 2:34 minutes, 16mm film on HD video)
In Tina Turning, performed by the artist Tina Girouard, her head is center frame while she spins around and around. The film ends when she loses balance and falls out of the frame. According to Serra: “The movement both carries physiognomic properties of the face under stress, and a moderate rate of speed is important in making the subject perceptually clear. A truly static object cannot be seen at all for more than a fraction of a second.”

Richard Serra, Frame (1969, 21:00 minutes, 16mm film on HD video)
In Frame, four sets of measurements are made with a six-inch ruler. In the first, the rectangle of the camera is placed at an angle, and the trapezoid measured and perceived untrue from the camera viewpoint. In the second, the camera is placed at an angle, and the trapezoid measured is perceived as a rectangle. Although one views the measurement of a totally white frame, it is in fact the angle of the camera to the wall which is being measured. Thus, at the end of the sequence the measurements spell out a trapezoid. In the third, the rectilinear window frame is measured as a rectangle but perceived as a trapezoid. In the fourth, the film image of the window is measured as a trapezoid but perceived as a rectangle (the reverse of the second image).

Richard Serra, Railroad Turnbridge (1976, 17:18 minutes, 16mm film on HD video)
In the beginning of Railroad Turnbridge, Serra frames the span of landscape visible through the railroad bridge over the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. The camera remains stationary, while the bridge rotates 360 degrees, creating an illusion of what is standing still and what is moving. Following the rotation, Serra reveals the sequence of mechanisms that allow the bridge to rotate.

Richard Serra with Joan Jonas and Gerry Schum, Anxious Automation (1971, 4:20 minutes, video)
Anxious Automation, taped at Windsor Total Video in New York City, is set up such that two camera people, standing slightly apart, zoom in and out on Joan Jonas, who is lying on her back performing a series of four movements that range from slow to quick. There are six variations on the zoom between the two cameras: the zoom held at its closest extent: at its farthest extent; the cameras in opposition to each other; and two simultaneous zooms in or out. Richard Serra, in the control booth, operates a special effects generator in switching or “punching” rapidly between the two camera images. The soundtrack is by Philip Glass, who taps the microphone out of sync with the movement. When the movement is slow, he taps quickly and vice versa. Thus, the tapping is in the relation of 1-4, 4-1, 2-3, and 3-2. The entire tape lasts two minutes but the end is cut off and the tape replayed from the beginning. The only edit exists between the first and second run.

Richard Serra with Nancy Holt, Boomerang (1974, 10:47 minutes, video)
Boomerang, recorded in a television station in Amarillo, Texas, used a delayed audio feedback system with two tape recorders and headphones. The set-up is intended to focus on thought processes as they are apprehended and verbalized. Nancy Holt wears the headphones, allowing her to hear her voice, both as she speaks, and a few seconds later, through the headphones and the audio feedback system. In the tape, Holt explores the relationship between the generation of thoughts and the response to the thoughts already put into words as they revolve back and re-enter her processes of thinking and verbalization.

Richard Serra with Carlota Schoolman, Television Delivers People (1973, 6:28 minutes, video)
Television Delivers People, produced with Carlota Schoolman, focuses on the political import of broadcasting as corporate monopoly and imperialism of the air. The content is presented ironically, for the message criticizes its medium while remaining within it. Muzak is playing while sentences that Serra has excerpted from television conferences roll down a blue background in white lettering.

© Estate of Richard Serra. Richard Serra’s films and videos are in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

For more information, contact [email protected].

Accessibility
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
–For elevator access, please RSVP to [email protected]. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the event space and this bathroom.

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