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  • Comma 39

Croft, Stuart, 2011, Art or design object, Comma 39

Abstract or Description:

Presented under the genre of the ‘dance film’, Croft’s Comma 39 harnesses cinematic manifestations of desire, pathos and obsession through the dramatic use of sound, lighting and movement. Research and development for the project incorporated a broad matrix of cultural languages unusual for the field, key among which were the MGM musical films of the 1950s. Furthermore, references to the iconic images of ‘film noir’, the cinema of Jean Cocteau, classical ballet, and the vocabulary of the music video were woven together to create one harmonious filmic output. Involving close collaboration with professional choreographers, Croft’s methodology was acutely informed by the conventions of cinematic production design and the musical score.
Significantly, the work challenges the affective potential of the Hollywood musical film by subjecting it to the recurring film-loop, thereby preventing it from reaching a traditional dramatic climax. Croft examined how cinematic tropes of pure emotion can be recontextualised within the visual framework and fluid viewing-parameters of the contemporary art gallery. His research analysed what occurs to the narrative basis of cinema when it becomes inherently circular.
Bloomberg LP commissioned the work for its contemporary Comma series and production for this project was underpinned by consultancy from dance agency Portland Green Cultural Projects and The Place, one of the UK’s leading dance organisations.
Comma 39 was an official selection of ‘Outcasting: Fourth Wall Artists’ Moving Image Festival’ curated by Michael Cousin and Ruth Cayford, Cardiff (2012)’ and was also featured in a solo exhibition curated by David Thorp at Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Beijing, supported by British Council China (2013).
A text on Comma 39, written by chief art critic of the Guardian, Adrian Searle, was commissioned on the occasion of the work’s first exhibition at Bloomberg SPACE (2011).

Contributors:
ContributionName
ChoreographerWright, Ben
ComposerLo, Mark
DancerMeazza, Michela
DancerCooke, Greig
CinematographerSchuller, Jean-Louis
ProducerJames, Lisa
ConsultantGreen, Portland
Set designerMaranon, Miren
ConsultantBeedham, Ellie
ConsultantNixon, Eddie
Curator of an exhibitionCraddock, Sacha
ConsultantLtd, Technicolor
Subjects: Creative Arts and Design > W100 Fine Art
Creative Arts and Design > W100 Fine Art > W130 Sculpture
Creative Arts and Design > W300 Music
Creative Arts and Design > W500 Dance > W510 Choreography
Creative Arts and Design > W600 Cinematics and Photography > W610 Moving Image Techniques
School or Centre: School of Arts & Humanities
Copyright Holders: Stuart Croft
Date Deposited: 14 Nov 2011 21:46
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2018 15:43
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/547
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