Private Project

Dots+Holes

A short film that is somewhat an anti-self-portrait. The film creates a conceptual framework that moves away from the ego of the "selfie" and toward the atmospheric "othering" of the body. Since the focus is on the disconnect and the space between the mirror and the surface, the film can become a study of refraction rather than only reflections in distorted surfaces. In a public space (museum) I simply used the existing light and surrounding physical objects (mirrors). The self is no longer a monolith; it is a collection of echoes, a ghosting of the physical form. Though the artist appears on film, he is continually moving out of the frame, presenting the absence of the subject (or a memory of someone who was in the room). Score by Fabio Orsi.

  • TJ Norris
    Director
    Elemental Studies, Heaven & Hell, auto-porto-matic
  • Fabio Orsi
    Score
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Arthouse, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    1 minute 58 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 2, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable

  • United States
Director Biography - TJ Norris

TJ Norris is an award-winning multidisciplinary conceptual artist and curator whose practice navigates the abstract psychology and social complexities of the urban environment. With a career defined by a "wabi-sabi" sensibility—an intentional focus on the beauty found within the fractured and ephemeral—Norris’s rigorous conceptual foundation was built at the Massachusetts College of Art and the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design.

His cinematic practice, which includes early highlights like the micro-short 'auto-porto-matic' (1993)—curated by Cheryl Dunye for DCTV (NY)—and the two-channel installation 'Infinitus'—recipient of the New American Art Union’s Couture Grant (2008)—has seen a prolific return since 2022. This recent work has earned international recognition, with screenings at the Absurd Film Festival (Best Arthouse Film), the I, Immigrant International Film Festival, the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Best Short Film), the East Village Film Festival (Honorable Mention), and an upcoming Asian Premiere of 'Elemental Studies' 4-Channel AV Installation at the A4 Art Museum in China. These projects continue his long-term investigation into human dissonance and the indifferent majesty of the natural world.

Norris’s exhibition record spans global institutions and biennials, including the Tacoma Art Museum’s 10th Northwest Biennial, Gallery X (Dublin), and CoCA Seattle. His photographic vision was codified in the monograph 'Shooting Blanks' (2018), and his work has been reviewed in Art Ltd, The Boston Globe, and Leonardo (MIT Press). Founder of the gallery Soundvision, Norris has curated over thirty exhibitions for venues such as Tufts University and the Linnfield College Art Center. His work is held in prominent collections, including the Amon Carter Museum of American Art Library, the Vanhaerents Art Collection, Harvard University, Nike and the Fuller Museum of Art.

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Director Statement

The Anatomy of Erasure: A Conceptual Framework

This short film functions as an anti-self-portrait at sixty, serving as a cinematic investigation into the anatomy of erasure. It proposes a conceptual departure from the modern ego—the static, curated "selfie"—and migrates toward an atmospheric "othering" of the physical body. Rather than a declaration of being, the film is an observation of un-becoming.

By shifting the lens toward the disconnection of liminal space existing between the mirror and the surface, the study evolves into an exploration of refraction over reflection. Here, identity is not mirrored; it is bent, scattered, and redistributed through distorted surfaces. Utilizing only the ambient light and objets d'art of a public museum, the environment becomes a collaborator in the artist’s own vanishing.

The self is no longer treated as a monolith. Instead, it is reimagined as a collection of echoes—a rhythmic ghosting of the physical form where the subject is in a state of perpetual exit. As the artist moves continually out of the frame, the film captures not a portrait, but the active absence of the subject. It remains as a residual memory of a body that once occupied the room, leaving the viewer to inhabit the hollows left behind.