Yantra

This complex animated film looks like computer animation but is, in fact, the result of almost ten years of meticulous drawing and painting. To achieve a look that seemed computer generated, James Whitney used various complex methods, including solarisation, colour filters, mask techniques, optical printers, single hand drawings, multiple exposure and mirror effects. He constructed it by punching grid patterns in 5" by 7" cards with a pin, and then painting through these pinholes onto other 5" x 7" cards images of rich complexity and dynamism. The name Yantra derives from a Sanskrit word meaning "implement" or "machine" which can refer to a variety of systems, from simple meditational aids like mandalas, to the flux of cosmic energy that defines the essential flow of life and reality, or, in the specialized area of alchemy, to the vessel or grail in which the mystical transmutation is bred. The majestic visual transformations happens, from gentle flickers between frames of pure white and black with no image at all, to masses of hundreds of points of light, each seeming to revolve in its own circuit. This range of quasi-musical variations of implosions and explosions, light and dark, hard-edged pure textures and thick, irregular, hand-wrought solarized textures induces a contemplation of the self and reality, identity and universality.  (Dr. William Moritz)