Mandala Visions
James Whitney's abstract meditation: Lapis (1966)
28 Feb 2012
Lapis (1966) a film by James Whitney. Colour, sound, 16mm, 10 mins.
Along with experimental American filmmakers in the Sixties such as STAN BRAKHAGE and JORDAN BELSON, filmmaker JAMES WHITNEY sought to construct and explore film as visionary experience. Through new technologies and experimental montage, these filmmakers sought to manifest cosmological and invisible phenomena.
In Lapis (1966) American experimental filmmaker JAMES WHITNEY develops his great cosmic realisation of the potential of the mandala through this abstract and minimal film. Drawing upon meditation practice, Whitney seeks to materialise and invoke the apparition of the life force of kundalini, a state of the highest consciousness.
Text by Sophie Pinchetti.
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