Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick

Stylish exhibition at Somerset House exploring the impact of the films of Stanley Kubrick on contemporary artists.

This is where I have to admit I’d not seen many of the films so some of the allusions were lost on me, but there was a good booklet with a commentary. The show created an amazing, slightly threatening atmosphere which was a good reflection of the films in itself.

Stand out works included Mat Collishaw’s monkey face in a space helmet. The monkey face was a hologram which overlaid a human skull. The initial view was quite unnerving of this real looking monkey in a helmet which then turned into a skull as you walked round it. Also Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s room of 114 radio sets each playing a different voice singing a Dies Irae used by Kubrick in two of his films. The voices are not singing the same bit at the same time so different harmonies appear and there are also period of silence and broken reception.

I also liked Seamus Farrell’s shelf of glass objects engraved with the titles of Kubrick films and Nathan Coley’s models of Edinburgh churches in cardboard.

There was an interesting room in the form of a maze with a lot of the smaller works in it including Polly Morgan’s amazing “Metanoia” a stuffed snake set in concrete!

More off putting works included Toby Dye’s video installation using all four walls of the gallery to show different films on an endless loop, set in the same corridor and featuring different characters from the films including a scary Joanna Lumley in Barry Linden guide! Also Chris Levine’s light work, a bright neon flashing light which projects a portrait of Kubrick into your peripheral vision! Very clever but it messed with my head and I couldn’t stand with it.

Closed on 24 August 2016.

Review
Telegraph


 

 

 

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