“Whether my bark went down at sea—Whether she met with gales—Whether to isles enchanted
She bent her docile sails—By what mystic mooring
She is held today—This is the errand of the eye
Out upon the Bay.”

“They took the upward path, through the still silence, steep and dark, shadowy with dense fog, drawing near to the threshold of the upper world. Afraid she was no longer there, and eager to see her, the lover turned his eyes. In an instant she dropped back, and he, unhappy man, stretching out his arms to hold her and be held, clutched at nothing but the receding air. Dying a second time, now, there was no complaint to her husband (what, then, could she complain of, except that she had been loved?). She spoke a last ‘farewell’ that, now, scarcely reached his ears, and turned again towards that same place.”

film · lauded by many as the best film of all time, alfred hitchcock's vertigo explores themes of perception, identity, guilt, and the manipulation of each.

music · audio from the green fog, a visual compendium and homage to vertigo. compiled by guy maddin and composed by jacob garchik and the kronos quartet.

photographs · rose mandel's errand of the eye exhibit took place at the san francisco legion of honor in 1954 and features layered images that play with our perception of abstraction and reality.

words I · emily dickinson's poem xxiv—inspiration for the title of mandel's collection—contemplates the meaning of mortality and the futility of searching for it.

words II · this passage from a translation of ovid's metamorphoses recounts the fatal moment orpheus looks back and loses his lover for a second time.

painting · our feature film is stylistically reminiscent of this aptly named salvador dalí painting vertigo or the tower of pleasure. surrealist artist dalí was a collaborator and inspiration of hitchcock's.