Hollis Frampton's Snowblind is an homage to Michael Snow's environmental installation consisting of metal grated fences arranged in a gallery with a glaringly bright light situated in the center (viewers can walk in and around the fences). The film shows mostly longer still shots that dissolve the grates into abstract patterns, going in and out of focus and confusing the negative and positive space of the metal. Some of the other shots are more descriptive of the room, showing a figure walking between the fences, the lens allows the figure to come in and out of focus, shifting its attention back and forth between the figure and the fence. The abstract quality of both the film, and the situation with which the person is in, lend the piece an existential mood, as if the set for a Beckett play. The film also raises questions about the presence of reference and appropriation in art, how this work functions as an homage, and how it situates itself in relation to art history.
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