Vertical White 2018
Dutch visual artist Fiona Tan transforms an ordinary West Los Angeles freeway into an unsettling dreamscape in Vertical White (2018).
Director: Fiona Tan
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Vertical White (2018) about?
Fiona Tan's Vertical White captures the hypnotic rhythm of Los Angeles traffic at night, framed as a flickering abstract painting rather than a conventional film. The static camera strips away narrative, leaving only light trails and the uncanny sensation of time suspended between movement and pause.
Who directed Vertical White?
Fiona Tan, the acclaimed Dutch visual artist and filmmaker known for her experimental and meditative works.
Who stars in Vertical White?
Vertical White features no traditional cast—its performers are the anonymous commuters whose headlights become fleeting luminous brushstrokes across the frame.
Is Vertical White (2018) worth watching?
While Vertical White may not appeal to fans of narrative cinema, its minimalist beauty and meditative pace reward patient viewers. As an experimental art film, it offers a unique sensory experience—more akin to a moving painting than a story-driven movie. It's best approached with an open mind to the language of light and shadow.
How long is Vertical White?
Runtime details are not listed.
Vertical White (2018): A Dreamlike Study of Traffic Seen Through an Artist's Window
Dutch visual artist Fiona Tan transforms an ordinary West Los Angeles freeway into an unsettling dreamscape in Vertical White (2018). Shot from a fixed vantage point at the Getty Center during night hours, the film captures ceaseless streams of traffic that dissolve into abstract patterns rather than cinematic spectacle. The rigid vertical framing collapses spatial depth, framing each passing headlight as a fleeting brushstroke across a flat canvas. Without plot or character, the work becomes a hypnotic, meditative experience—less about movement and more about the eerie stillness between motion.
This experimental short belongs to a trilogy of dream-like moving images, inviting viewers to question perception itself. The monochrome glow of headlights against the dark sky creates a melancholic beauty, while the absence of narrative leaves room for personal interpretation. Vertical White (2018) is a study in contrasts: real and surreal, motion and stasis, the mundane and the sublime.