Things Fall Apart
The Life and Work of Peter Whitehead
Framework #52, Issue No. 1 and No. 2
Edited by Paul Cronin, James Riley and Drake Stutesman
Peter Whitehead is the quintessence of eclecticism. Though best known as a filmmaker whose body of work from the second half of the Sixties is a vital documentation of the era’s countercultural expression in London and New York, Whitehead has also worked as an artist, publisher, and – most spectacularly, in Saudi Arabia for nearly a decade – a royal falconer. He is currently most active as a novelist and potter. This scope is clearly evident in his film work, which ranges from pop promos to long-form narrative cinema. He has produced documentaries, fiction films, and projects that blur the line between the two.
Despite this seemingly restless variation, the work produced in each of these different contexts and media exhibits comparable themes, ideas, and motivations. If to be eclectic is to develop a philosophy that is broad, not exclusive, then Whitehead’s work perhaps points to the reverse position. It is broad and exclusive insofar as its material diversity masks a deeper attempt to investigate a recurrent set of obsessions and archetypes. Taken as a whole, Whitehead’s work – film, fictions, falconry – is indicative of what he would term “the working out of a myth.”
In light of this sweeping range, we are fortunate to have an unprecedented full volume year of Framework dedicated to describing, exploring, and basking in Whitehead’s many and varied achievements, travels, and beliefs. Anything less would be inadequate and superficial.
Both issues are organized chronologically. Framework 52.1 considers Whitehead’s career through the release of his 1969 film The Fall. Framework 52.2 begins with his 1970s film work Daddy and Fire in the Water and ends with the completion of his latest film, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts (UK, 2009). This issue also examines his work as a novelist, falconer, and potter. The issues are structured by parts of a long text entitled “The Wanderer,” a detailed interview about Whitehead’s life, conducted by Robert F. Paul for his 2007 book Voices from the R-Field on Whitehead’s work as a novelist, which was recorded after Whitehead’s near-fatal heart attack in 1996.
The overall intention of these issues is to consolidate and expand upon the range of attention that has been directed at Whitehead’s oeuvre in the wake of his 2007 worldwide film retrospective and the completion of Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts (UK, 2009). We present a selection of essays in conjunction with an extensive series of documents from Whitehead’s personal archive, many published here for the first time, each with its own brief introduction and, where necessary, explanatory notes. The aim is for the archival material to elaborate upon and enter a productive dialogue with the critical discourse as the discussion as a whole progresses through each phase of Whitehead’s creative career.
When handling a figure like Whitehead, it is always the case that a book-length collection of other material is left out. For every piece in this volume written by Whitehead, there is a box of similar material – drafts, fragments, photographs, and manuscripts – that remains in his archive, an hour north of London.
It would be counterproductive to pigeonhole Whitehead. His work is indicative of an anarchic creative stance and an interdisciplinary scope that often problematizes attempts at formal or stylistic categorization. We therefore offer this collection of articles and archival material as a starting point for those anxious to explore his life and work in more detail.
Things Fall Apart, the title of Framework 52, represents Whitehead’s concept of separation and coherence, in which, though elements fall apart, they also cohere in their constant relationship to one another. This theme, central to his work, is found in many details. It is visible in the large interface L shapes of the Lorrimer logo where building blocks holistically interact and it is visible in the images from The Fall on the cover of Framework 52.1, showing Whitehead’s love-hate struggle with the static media frame. The repetition in the pages of these issues similarly reflects Whitehead’s sense of coherence, dispersion, and relativity. Some of the repetition has been edited, but some has been retained in order to allow each essay, image, or archival piece its own rhythm, its own relationship with what it accompanies. Each part should be read or seen to stand on its own, as well as perceived as a piece of a greater whole.
— Paul Cronin, James Riley, and Drake Stutesman
Here and here for the tables of contents, and here for a chronology of Whitehead’s life and work. Here for Whitehead’s notes on the filming of Wholly Communion and here for Whitehead’s film treatments written for the Rolling Stones. Here for his notes written about the occupation of Columbia University in 1968, and here for an essay by Jeremy Varon about Whitehead’s 1969 film The Fall. (Here for an antidote to the whole thing…) Here and here for two films about Peter Whitehead.
