A Ken & Flo Jacobs Tribute: XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX

Experimental American filmmaker Ken Jacobs appropriated and re-presented a vintage French pornographic film for his 1980 screening and performance work Cherries in order to study cinematic motion frame-by-frame. Part of his “Nervous System” performances, the artist’s skills as a projectionist were highlighted when he invented this specially designed system of two analytic stop-motion projectors, equipped with a spinning exterior shutter, enabling him to compare stills of found footage side by side. While he wanted to be as frank about sexuality as possible, Jacobs was mostly uninterested in the pornographic content of the film, favoring the discussion it prompted about the depth of the formal elements of movement.