Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
RADIO MANIA:
An Abandoned Work
The Gallery at BFI Southbank, London, SE1
8 May - 11 July 2009
Private view: Thursday 7 May, 6.30-9pm
Admission free
www.bfi.org.uk/gallery
This May the Gallery at BFI Southbank goes 3D with a new video installation by British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. This new commission takes as its starting point one of the first 3D films ever produced - The Man from M.A.R.S. (also known as Radio-Mania in its 2D version). The artists have set about creating a contemporary adaptation of this silent movie, staged a rehearsal and filmed it using contemporary 3D video and audio technology, capturing the actors, directors and musicians working on the script and score. The Gallery is transformed into a mind-bending stereoscopic limbo, warping the viewer's sense of space and time. Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work opens on 8 May and runs until 11 July.
Forsyth and Pollard's practice revels in the grey edges of science and the idea of haunted media. Here they have created a compelling work-in-progress stuck on repeat, like a locked-groove record. Their entertaining, stark and immersive installation recalls Beckett, summoning an atmosphere that oscillates between the theatricality of the stage and the illusionism of cinema. The work occupies a state between extended reality and hallucination.
Their work often cross-references art and music. Since 2007 they have been working with Nick Cave on a series of film and music video projects. The soundtrack for Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work has been composed by the legendary Barry Adamson. A former member of Magazine, Visage and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Adamson has contributed to numerous soundtracks including David Lynch's Lost Highway, Derek Jarman's The Last of England and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers.
The Man from M.A.R.S. was made in 1922 to demonstrate ‘Teleview', a stereoscopic motion picture system created by Laurens Hammond who later went on to invent the Hammond Organ. In this film an inventor builds a radio transmission device capable of communicating with life on Mars only to wake up and find it was a dream. Following its premiere in New York, the film closed 24 days later, after which neither Teleview nor the 3D film was seen again. Radio-Mania now forms part of the BFI National Archive.
About Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
Iain Forsyth (b.1973) and Jane Pollard (b.1972) began working collaboratively at Goldsmiths, graduating together in 1995. They are best known as artists who create re-enactments of cultural and art historical events and documents. They make work that is always challenging, accessible and popular. In 2006 they staged Silent Sound an experiment in subliminal messaging with Jason Pierce from Spiritualized. In 2003 they produced File under Sacred Music, their acclaimed video remake of the Cramps live at Napa State Mental Institute, and in 1998 A Rock ‘N' Roll Suicide, their live re-enactment of David Bowie's farewell performance as Ziggy Stardust. They live and work in London, UK. More information may be found at www.iainandjane.com
Special event on 17 June with the artists and Nick Cave
During the show, BFI Southbank will premiere Do you love me like I love you. Part 5: Tender Prey. Do you love me like I love you is a series of 14 new short films by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard commissioned by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to accompany the 2009 re-issue of their influential catalogue. Expanding on the several projects the artists and the band have worked on together as well as Forsyth & Pollard's own acclaimed Precious Little series, each 40 minute film features a collage of the famous, infamous and unknown talking directly to camera about what the songs mean to them. The result is a subjective human portrait of the truly unique body of work, told through those who have lived and loved the music. Following the screening the artists and Nick Cave will take part in a Q&A with the audience: 6.20-8.30pm, NFT1, BFI Southbank.
There will be a full programme of events to accompany Radio Mania, which will be announced shortly.
About BFI Southbank
BFI Southbank (located between the National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall) has the only London art gallery specifically dedicated to commissioning and showcasing artists' films and videos and the moving image in its most contemporary forms. There's more to discover about film and television through the BFI. Our world-renowned archival collections, cinemas, films, publications and learning resources are there to inspire you.
Listing details:
BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT
Gallery admission free
Exhibition open Tuesday to Sundays (and Bank Holiday Mondays):
11am-8pm
Tel: DAILY INFO: 020 7633 0274
BOX OFFICE: 020 7928 3232
Tube/BR: Waterloo www.bfi.org.uk/gallery
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