Incidence of Catastrophe, 1987 88

Inspired by the novel Thomas the Obscure by Maurice Blanchot wherein the protagonist of the novel is the reader of the novel he is in (who may well be Blanchot himself). In the video, Thomas the protagonist is played by Hill which confounds the selfreflexive nature of the books relationships all the more, making the video something of a transcreation. The reader begins in the liquidity of the text almost as if he were waking from drowning. Images of the sea ravishing the shore small cliffs of sand eroding and collapsing are intercut with extreme closeups of text and the texture of the page and book itself being flooded with ocean waves. In scene after scene the reader attempts to reenter the book only to find himself a part of intense dreams and hallucinations. Thomas, Hill reads the book, when, suddenly, he feels he is being watched by the words. The character then experiences the book as a forest of words he is fighting through. Another chapter finds him alone in his room at night, overcome by