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Spellbound: Art and Film, Hayward Gallery
Spellbound: Art and Film was an exhibition organised by the Hayward Gallery
in collaboration with the British Film Institute in which ten artists
and film-makers working in Britain created new work to explore the relationship
between art and film. The exhibition was curated by Ian Christie and Philip
Dodd, the then Director of the British Film Institute. Featured artists
included Douglas Gordon; Eduardo Paolozzi; Steve McQueen; Paula Rego;
Ridley Scott; Terry Gilliam; Boyd Webb; Fiona Banner; Peter Greenaway;
Damien Hirst; Tim Head; Derek Boshier; Bruce McLean; Sam Taylor-Wood.
As designers of the exhibition it was our role to produce a scheme to
combine a range of exhibits in a variety of media including painting,
sculpture, installation, film and video. Our initial witty suggestion
was to reuse the installation for the previous exhibition Art and Power,
an installation of Fascist Art, and simply turn the lights off. This suggestion
was politely declined.
Whilst mulling over our ideas we visited the office of Ridley Scott. Mr
Scott was unavailable but Mr Fretton was welcomed in to his office, where
he discovered laid out on the desk the shooting script for the film Alien,
annotated with Directors notes and photographs of the cast. He decided
to use the script as an exhibit, filming it simply with the pages being
turned.
Douglas Gordons 24 Hour Psycho, one of the signature installations of
Spellbound, was displayed on a giant screen at the point of entry to the
exhibition, playing with silent menace.
Peter Greenaway and Terry Gilliam showed that there is an enormous gap
between the disciplines of art and film; they tested the resources of
the Hayward Gallery, taking it to its limit and beyond. The eminent artist
Paolozzi, on the other hand, made the installation process very simple,
delivering and installing a series of exhibits and quietly leaving.
Cinema licensing laws applied to the exhibition, which meant that x-rated
material would need to be screened separately. Damien Hirst was subsequently
permitted his own cinema auditorium for the specially commissioned film
Hanging Around.
Completion date; May 1996
Client: Hayward Gallery
Photographs: John Riddy / the Hayward Gallery
