Exhibition inspired by Stanley Kubrick opens at Somerset House
1 July 2016
'Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick', an exhibition of art inspired by the master filmmaker, opens at Somerset House in London this July. The exhibition, curated by Mo’Wax and UNKLE founder, artist and DJ James Lavelle, features over 50 visual artists, filmmakers and musicians who have been invited to respond to a film, scene, character or theme from the Kubrick archives.Highlights of the exhibition include a collaboration with James Lavelle and contemporary musicians and composers to produce a soundtrack to some of the show's installations, creating a multi-disciplinary experience for visitors. Artist duo Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin have created a large-scale floor vinyl, covering nearly 200 square metres of Somerset House, that features the same pattern of that found in the hotel of The Shining, and Haroon Mirza will present Bitbang Mirror (2015), a sound installation that uses a parabolic mirror by Anish Kapoor as its focal point. The work places emphasis on the acoustic characteristics of the curved mirror and the specific way it reflects sound, which references the reflections of hyperspace in the astronaut Dr. David Bowman's helmet at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Also included in the exhibition is an installation by Joseph Kosuth made of text from Kubrick's films based on the language of Kubrick's work. Political artist Peter Kennard will juxtapose images of characters set in the War Room of Dr Strangelove with present day leaders of nuclear states, in a statement about the renewal of Trident, while Doug Foster, inspired by the Stargate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, will invite visitors to experience an endless, widescreen tunnel. Doug Aitken will provide ‘Twilight’, a public pay phone bathed in a luminous glow, which will be reminiscent of the Dr Strangelove scene where Mandrake attempts to make a collect call to the President of the United States. Sarah Lucas will lend ‘Priapus’, a phallic sculpture suggestive of the iconic murder weapon in A Clockwork Orange.
The exhibition has been co-curated by James Putnam who was formerly founder curator of the British Museum's Contemporary Arts and Cultures Programme and is currently Senior Research Fellow Exhibitions at University of the Arts, London (UAL) where the Stanley Kubrick archive is housed.
The exhibition is supported by artist Christiane Kubrick, the director’s wife of 41 years, who will be exhibiting a painting and Jan Harlan, Kubrick’s Executive Producer for 28 years.
'Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick' runs from 6 July until 24 August. More information on the exhibition is available here.
