Full Circle: The Work of Doris Chase

Glass Curtain explore actress Jennie Ventriss' anguish over her mother's deterioration due to Alzheimer's disease.

Window is a dramatic poem concerned with inner and outer tensions in a woman's life.

Multiple overlapping images combine with still-frames of an amorous Puerto Rican filmmaker's telephone conversation with a repairman, coincidentally also interested in film. Written by Lee Breuer and performed by Ruth Maleczeck, both of Mabou Mines theatre company. Music by Bob Telson.

A videotape-to-film transfer based on the solo dancing of Marnee Morris, of the New York City Ballet. Once again, Doris Chase has not merely documented the performance but transformed it into what she describes as a "moving painting." Through special color video effects of feedback, de-beaming and superimposition, she creates an evocative visual interpretation of the dance. We see the dancer from different points of view simultaneously overlapped, most often contrasting close-up and full figure shots.

Chase's frenzied line manipulation creates dazzling patterns. With music by Gwen Watson.

A dance film that explores new dimensions in color and space. The film develops like a fugue, with dancers (and giant undulating circle) moving through repeated themes and variations; All the while Brown and Olvey's dazzling color and printing effects electrify the viewer.

A sophisticated example of the creative possibilities of videodance. This truly collaborative work is based on an idea developed out of Doris Chase's earlier films of dance with sculpture. But in this instance, the Rutt/Etra video synthesizer was used to generate animated patterns assembling arches which were edited into the whole.

Plexi Radar is the act of filming a gyrating motion of a circular plexiglas sculpture, which is then looped by a computer. The image of the sculpture alternately divide in between some hypnotic shots in which subconscious impose the illusion of a constant change of frame.

Set to an Albinoni score, Chase hypnotically manipulates line and block patterns.

"It's an experience a bit like peering through uncurtained windows at dusk. Chase puts this personal account together, not of fame or fortunes made or missed in the Chelsea, but of how creative people live together." – Karen Jaehne

Features a duet of sorts between Cynthia Anderson and specially processed images of herself. Similar in technique and intention to DANCE SEVEN, this film is in some ways more lyrical and languorous than the former, emphasizing the overall shaping of the body in dance, rather than isolated movement details such as the virtuoso footwork. Space is transformed into a viscous atmosphere of colored light, which seems to flood and blend in response to movement impulses of the dance. The dance itself has a sustained, weighted quality, contrasting the stable placement of the body against sinuously rhythmic movements of limbs. A mellow sensation of tension is emphasized by the dissonant, muted hues programmed by Chase, while feedback effects multiply, blur and dissolve the image. The sum effect is to induce a meditative mood tinged with a not unpleasant melancholy.

Music by Morton Subotnik. "A computer-generated abstract film produced by the world-famous sculptress, with original music by a leading contemporary composer. Circles revolve in, around, and through each other, float off like loosened coils, and evolve into whirling spheres. The pale colors of the circles multiply into brilliant hues against a stark musical accompaniment which evokes the sounds of endlessly bouncing springs." – The Booklist

An abstract computer-generated film. The image is of squares revolving in space around and through each other. Colors and forms multiply and divide against a beautiful symphonic score by George Kleinsinger.

It renders poet Jessica Hagedorn’s views of “some of the harsh and beautiful realities of city living” for women in a man’s world. Hagedorn’s poetry is musical, pungent and gutsy. The visual artistry of Doris Chase emphasizes different aspects of Hagedorn’s lyrics. Images are dissected, quartered, washed with memory wipes that support and underscore the image and poetic meaning.

Chase fuses undulating lines with undulating an disco sound.