I went to the Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick Exhibition at Somerset House on 26/07/2016, this was less for my final project research and more as a personal love of Stanley Kubrick’s imagery and intensity in his filmmaking but the pieces on show threw up sources for inspiration I hadn’t considered. The exhibition as a whole was intense, the pieces were housed in rooms off a gloomy corridor with an overwhelming orange glow aided by the geometric floor pattern created by Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin to evoke the carpets in The Shining. The opening confronts you with PYRE, a mountain of fireplaces by Stuart Haygarth that not only looks intimidating but also blasts out heat to further amp up the confrontation found in Kubrick’s films. For me this confrontation with intensity was the best part of the exhibition, the way it made you feel slightly claustrophobic and forced you into a journey through the different pieces. Again contrasting this with beautiful lighting, including Haroon Mirza & Anish Kapoor’s ‘Bitbang Mirror’ that bathed the room in a ultraviolet esq blue light intensified by the sound of a motor reflecting off a curved mirror surface. Also James Lavelle and John Isaacs ft Aziz Glasser’s use of red neon words gave the space of the room a violent feel, again intensified by oversized teddy bears depicting Lolita (with her heart sunglasses and red lollipop) and Alex from A Clockwork Orange (complete with mask, cane and cod piece). The light piece Mr Kubrick is Looking by Chris Levine situated at the end of a corridor vibrated with energy until it showed you a ghostly image of Kubrick in your peripheral vision.

Two of the pieces I responded to most were housed in The Maze, this was a room filled with different pieces and while the setting of these left something to be desired (they felt more like a student exhibition with standard screens and plain lighting) Pink Twin’s video piece and Polly Morgan’s Metanoia stood out. Pink Twin’s piece depicts a stately room with ornate furniture and wood cladding created as a 3D render and textured in vivid colours again evoking an ultraviolet glow. The video goes through the room floating, distorting, falling apart, coming back together again and finally a tidal wave of red gushing from the fireplace to cover the room. The use of 3D imagery here is very effective and whilst appearing visually stunning, holds a vast amount of tension in the distortions and feeling as if at any moment the whole thing will break down. Contrasting to this Polly Morgan’s work is a taxidermy sculpture showing a twisted, fleshy snake crammed into a concrete triangle inspired by both Alex’s pet in A Clockwork Orange and the cod pieces they wear to enact violence. The materiality of this (Jesmonite, Burmese Python skin and polyurethane) have a beautiful finish with the skin of the snake having a almost varnished effect, yet contrast the violent constriction and intense energy of its positioning. This again contrasted the fleshy snake with the rigid concrete to further show the conflict between the two.