The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds’ United Enemies film screening series explores “how artists in the 1960s and 1970s deployed sculpture in film, as well as using film to rethink sculpture”. As part of this they presented Malcolm Le Grice’s Horror Film 1 (1971) where, once again, we can consider horror film as a structure. Or perhaps even sculpture.

From LUX’s website:

All are superimposed on each other with the projectors aimed from different angles. The superimpositions create a continually changing colour light mix. I interrupt the beam with a series of formal actions creating a complex set of coloured shadows. The final section involves focusing a pair of skeleton hands onto the screen in relationship to my own hands. The intention with this as with my other shadow pieces, is to build a complex visual experience out of simple and readily available aspects of the projection situation. M.L.G. from ‘Real Time/Space’, Art and Artists Dec 1972.

“One of his most simple, most classical, and also most ecstatic pieces”. Jonas Mekas, Village Voice, Oct 11th 1973.

More recent versions of Horror Film 1 have been performed without the final section containing the skeleton hands and with the use of three projectors.

Malcolm Le Grice
Horror Film 1 (1971)
14mins Colour
Performance with slide projector, two film projectors