Hand Catching Lead was Richard Serra’s first film, an attempt to break into the “intimidating” medium of cinema. Serra sought to create a piece that transcended traditional documentary. Originally asked to document the making of his sculpture House of Cards, Serra instead chose to craft a filmic analogy of the creative process, reflecting the mechanics of cinema itself. In the film, Serra’s hand repeatedly opens and closes, trying to catch pieces of sheet lead that fall into the frame, mirroring the vertical movement of film through a projector at 24 frames per second. As his hand, blackened by the lead, mimics the silhouette of a dog catching something thrown to it, the work alludes to the origins of cinema in shadow theatre, offering a refined representation of the months Serra spent laboring over his sculpture.
Has its own crt B&W monitor.