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31/3/2010

Alejandro Jodorowsky's 'Dune'

Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth

Curated by Tom Morton

Steven Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon with material by Moebius, H R Giger and Chris Foss

An Exhibition of a Film of a Book That Never Was takes as its departure from the cult Chilean film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempted 1976 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune. This exhibition includes production drawings made by Moebius, H R Giger and Chris Foss alongside commissioned work made in response by three international contemporary artists: Steven Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon.

Following the release of his mystical Western El Topo (1970) and Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky embarked on his Dune project, gathering around him a group of collaborators that included the French comics artist Moebius, the Swiss artist H R Giger (who would later design the 1979 film Alien), the British science fiction artist Chris Foss, and the British band Pink Floyd, who would provide the soundtrack. Unable to secure the money from Hollywood to create the Dune of his imagination, Jodorowsky abandoned the film before a single frame was shot. All that survives of this project is Jodorowsky’s extensive notes and the production drawings of Moebius, Giger and Foss.

These reveal a potential future for science fiction movie-making that eschewed the conservative technology-based approach of American film-makers in favour of something closer to a metaphysical fever-dream. This was, though, a future that would never take place. In 1977, George Lucas’ Star Wars was released and the history of science fiction film-making, and even mainstream cinema, would never be the same again...

Dune’s themes of jihad, resource war and environmental degradation are especially pertinent to our current political moment, and the exhibition also seeks to explore the notion of adaptation and counterfactual histories of film. The exhibition brings together the original production drawings for Dune and Moebius’ storyboards for Jodorowsky’s script alongside new works by Steve Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon developed in reaction to Jodorowsky’s notes on Dune - an extraordinary mixture of mystical pronouncement, philosophical speculation on the nature of authorship, cultural criticism and 70s film gossip.

This exhibition is a touring exhibition from The Drawing Room. The project is guest-curated by Tom Morton, Curator at the Hayward, London, Co-curator of The British Art Show 7 (2010 -11)
and Contributing Editor, frieze magazine.

Steven Claydon was born in 1969 & lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include 2009: Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan; 2008: HOTEL, London, Independent Project Space, Bourneville, Birmingham, Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf. Group exhibitions: 2008: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London; ‘Strange Events Permit Themselves the Luxury of Occurring’, curated by Claydon for Camden Arts Centre, London; 2006: ‘Pale Carnage’, Arnolfini, Bristol; 2007: ‘Rings of Saturn’, Tate Modern, London.

Matthew Day Jackson was born in 1974 Panorama City, CA and lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions: 2008: Peter Blum Chelsea, Manhattan, NY & Nicole Klagsbrun, Manhattan, NY; 2007: Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Manhattan, NY & Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, 2007. Recent Group Exhibitions: 2008: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX; Barbican Gallery, London, UK & Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands: 2006: Museum Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Serpentine Gallery, London, UK, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland; Whitney Biennial, NY.

Vidya Gastaldon was born in 1974, Besançon, France and lives in Geneva. Recent solo exhibitions: 2008: New Art Gallery, Walsall Museum, Walsall, UK ; 2007: Swiss Institut, NY, USA; Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, CH; Atelier Hermès , Séoul, Corée du Sud; Hiromi Yoshii, Tokyo, Japan; 2006: Kunstmuseum de Thun, CH; 2005: Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Genèva, CH. Recent Group Exhibitions: 2008:CNAI (Centre National de l’Estampe et de l’Art Imprimé), Chatou, F ; Musée Jenisch, Vevey, CH; Kunsthaus, Zürich, CH ; Foundation Salomon, Annecy, F ; 2007: Villa Arson, Nice ;Centre d’édition contemporaine, BAC, Genèva, CH ;Marres Art Centre, Maastricht ; National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest; 2006: Grand Palais, Paris.

Hans Ruedi Giger was born in Chur, Switzerland, and lives and works in Zurich. H R Giger is a painter, sculptor, and set designer, who won an Oscar for his design work on the film Alien. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost artists of Fantastic Realism. Recent solo exhibitions include: "H R Giger: Art – Design – Film: A Special Exhibition" Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt, 2009; Bundner Kunstmuseum, Chur, 2007; "Giger in Wien" Kunsthaus Wien, Austria, 2006; "H R Giger in Prague", National Technical Museum, Prague, 2005; "The World According to H R Giger", Musee de la Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, 2004; Fuse Gallery, New York City, 2002.

Chris Foss was born in 1946, is a British artist and science fiction illustrator, and lives and works in Guernsey. Foss is best known for his book cover illustrations for Isaac Asimov, James Blish, Philip K Dick and the EE 'Doc' Smith Series and the black and white illustrations for the original editions of The Joy of Sex. In 1993 Chris worked for Stanley Kubrick creating conceptualisations for A.I. His evocative science fiction book covers pioneered a much-imitated style featuring vast, colourful spaceships, machines and cities, often marked with mysterious symbols. These images are suggestive of science fiction in general rather than depictions of specific scenes from books, and therefore can be -- and have been -- used interchangeably on book covers.

Press enquiries: contact Hannah Prothero, Marketing & Communications Manager, Plymouth Arts Centre, phone: 01752 276990, email: hannah@plymouthartscentre.org

Image:Vidya Gastaldon, I must not fear, fear is the mindkiller... 2009. Courtesy Art:Concept, Paris.

Preview: Thursday 1 April, 6.30 - 8.30pm
Curatorial introduction by Tom Morton at 7pm

Plymouth Arts Centre
38 Looe Street, Plymouth PL4 0EB
Gallery opening hours
Monday closed
Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 8.30pm
Sunday 4pm - 8.30pm
Closed Easter Sunday 4 April

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