Melissa Bugarella, Alasdair Duncan & Matthew Verdon, Katie Goodwin, Fabien Giraud & Raphael Siboni and Jeremy Millar.
A VITRINE Project Space group exhibition. First used by Val Lewton's production team in Cat People (1942), the “Lewton Bus” is a genre specific device used to build then dissipate tension in horror movies. As Alice is pursued by Irena, who the audience expects to turn into a panther at any moment, the tension builds to a crescendo. Alone in a dark street Alice embodies our fear. At the height of the tension the scene is shattered by a loud hiss, a dark shape enters the screen. We expect the monster, but it is a bus pulling up, hence the Lewton Bus. This device has been employed many times since and itself is genre defining.
Split into two distinct chapters, The Lewton Bus approaches the processes of exhibition and art making through a number of operations found in the history of cinema – the double feature, the interlude, film signage, the Lewton Bus, suspension of disbelief, montage etc – whilst also addressing itself to the demands made by the specific works.The first exhibition, Coming Soon, presents a curatorial intervention in Vitrine Gallery accompanied by new video work by the artists in Shortwave Cinema for one evening only.
The second exhibition, Conditions, presents 2 and 3-d work by the artists developed with the curator in response to the cinematic proposition. As an interlude between each exhibition, on the occasion of the opening of the second exhibition, Giraud & Siboni present for the first time in the UK their film ‘La Vallée Von Uexkull’ (4096x2304).
Curator Tom Trevatt