Ten Skies
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2022
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Millennium Film Journal
Abstract
Clouds play a key role in a number of experimental film and video works, such as Peter Gidal's Clouds (1969), Yoko Ono's Apotheosis (1970), and Cory Arcangel's Super Mario Clouds (2002). One of the most compelling works in this tradition is James Benning's Ten Skies (2004), a film that comprises ten static shots of the sky, each of which is ten minutes in length. When a friend of mine learned that Erika Balsom would be writing a monograph on Ten Skies, he was intrigued, asking, "How is she going to write an entire book about such a simple film?" But is Ten Skies as simple as its synopsis would suggest? Not according to Balsom. As she puts it, "There are films that present themselves as complex objects but which are in fact quite simple... And then there are films - rarer altogether - that appear simple but harbor tremendous complexity." Yes, the premise of Benning's film is simple (ten skies, ten minutes each), but this structure masks a deeper complexity: asynchronous sound-image relationships, intertextual references to other works in Benning's oeuvre, intimations of environmental catastrophe.
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This article is published as Remes, Justin, Ten Skies by Erika Balsom (Victoria, Australia; Fireflies Press, 2021). Millennium Film Journal 75, 36–37. https://millenniumfilmjournal.com/product/mfj-75-boundaries/. Posted with permission.