Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Frames inherently territorialize the seemingly unorganized chaos of the world at large. Perhaps a better explanation of chaos is a seemingly endless series of rules or order that cannot be distinguished from each other. Frames disrupt this by creating within the world, a plane of composition. To temporarily arrest chaos, and allow for the intensification of feeling or the derivation of meaning. Without this plane, art itself is impossible. Elizabeth Grosz examines this phenomenon in her book Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze and the Framing of the Earth:

“With no frame or boundary there can be no territory, and without territory there may be objects or things but not qualities that can become expressive, that can intensify and transform living bodies.”

Therefore, the physical frame is a manifestation of an underlying psychic phenomenon. By re-contextualizing the idea of the frame beyond a physical object, we are left with the idea that any object or idea which creates a plane of composition can be understood as a frame.

John Smigielski, Assistant Production Manager