Spin Events
Catherine Sullivan
The Resuscitation of Uplifting (Nostalgic Leisure Class Archetypes) by Catherine Sullivan (c) Catherine Sullivan
CCA, Glasgow
17 January 2007, 6.30pm
For our first SPIN:Glasgow event of 2007, we will visit the Catherine Sullivan exhibition at CCA, the first Scottish exhibition by LA-based artist.
Sullivan initially trained as an actress, and although she works in a variety of media, her best-known work is in film and video. The works explore human mores and conventions and is rich in cultural, cinematic and historical references.
Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land (2003) is a multi-screen black and white projection that takes as its starting point, the Chechen rebel takeover of the Russian musical, Nord-Ost in 2002. The tragic incident, which resulted in the deaths of many captives and all of the Chechen terrorists, has been segued by Sullivan into Veniamin Kaverin’s Two Captains (1942), a classic Russian love and adventure novel about polar expansion in the Arctic – also the musical upon which Nord Ost was based.
Sullivan recreates the ten sections of the novel through a series of 40 vignettes in which actors perform pantomime- like actions that are carefully choreographed and stylised to recall musical theatre traditions.
We will meet in the foyer of the CCA for 6.30pm.
See you then.