Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, Square (1970)

Plot Summary

Using montage techniques, in 'Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, Square' Jan Dibbets imposes a graphic pattern on his shot of a grassy field. On the one hand, the lines are reminiscent of the white markings on a street or a football field that guide traffic or play. On the other hand, the graphic pattern here has nothing to do with this reality; it exists in the wholly other and more abstract dimension of the framing of the image imposed by camera. Then the pattern of lines disappears, and the artist himself steps into the image. With the utmost concentration Dibbets follows the lines seen earlier, which were only notional in the physical space, having been determined by the eye of the camera. He crosses the field from the lower left to the upper right, and from he bottom to the top. He moves across the grass as carefully as a tightrope walker, now drawing the lines with his movements, like an invisible horizon.

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