Curated by Clint Enns. Presented by Hollis Frampton: From Form to Idea to Form of Idea in Paris, France at the University of Chicago Center in Paris, France on February 19, 2026.
Axioms of Vision: Echoes of Hollis Frampton convenes a set of works that approach Hollis Frampton’s work as a set of propositions that test the limits of the formal systems he developed. His rigorous investigations into the material and conceptual limits of cinema—film as language, as system, as thinking—provide both the scaffolding and the provocation for the program. Some works adopt his structural clarity with near-devotional precision, while others answer with satire or mischief, pulling at the threads of his seriousness to expose its comic underside. In this oscillation between homage and parody, the program resists the stability of a single reading, instead staging a field of echoes, ruptures, and counterpoints. What emerges is not a monument to Frampton but a living dialogue, where his axioms become less laws than invitations—coordinates for reimagining the possibilities of vision itself.
Program:
Hollis Well | Jodie Mack | 2012 | 10 sec. [Loop]
notes to self [July 19, 2020]1 | Christina Battle | 2014-ongoing | 1 min.
The Definition of Film | Richard Misek | 2015 | 9 min.
Zorns Lemma [Analysis] | Steina Vasulka | 2006 | 6 min.
Clouds Like White Sheep | Guy Maddin | 2010 | 13 min.
notes to self [April 1, 2024]2 | Christina Battle | 2014-ongoing | 1 min.
HF | James Benning | 2013 | 12 min.
(nostalgia) [Analysis] | Steina Vasulka | 2006 | 3 min.
Regrettable Redding Condescension | Al Rutcurts | 1975 | 3 min.
Pyramid | David Roderick | 2016 | 4 min.
Mike’s Hard Lemonade | Jesse Malmed | 2006-2012 | 30 sec.
Critical Mass [Performance Documentation] | Kerry Tribe | 2010-2013 | 3 min. [Excerpt]
Ceibas: Epilogue—The Well of Representation | Evan Meaney | 2011 | 7 min.
notes to self [July 19, 2020]3 | Christina Battle | 2014-ongoing | 1 min.
