The most modern film yet accepted into the Registry, which is restricted to works at least 10 years old, is “Decasia,” a 2002 experimental collage piece by New York artist Bill Morrison. Ironically, it was assembled from deteriorating film footage, some of which Morrison says he found at — wait for it — the Library of Congress. According to the artist, “Decasia” is not a call to arms, but rather a celebration — in such sequences as one in which a boxer appears to be battling a blob of decaying film stock — of the beauty and inevitability of decay.
“We can preserve only a small fraction of threatened films,” says Morrison, who described himself as overjoyed about the news of his film’s selection. Coincidentally, his prints of “Decasia” were destroyed in flooding from Hurricane Sandy, although the Museum of Modern Art had stored his negative, allowing Morrison to reprint the film. The many layers of destruction and creation involved in “Decasia” make it a work that gives people “lots to chew on,” says Morrison. Being honored with preservation by the nation’s biggest library is, he says, “yet another layer” to the story.
Complete article here.
Artist website.
