Stanley Kubrick’s auterism and attention to detail are legendary. A voracious absorber and synthesizer of all forms of information, Kubrick involved himself in all aspects of his films, from initial research through to publicity.
A distinctive feature of Kubrick’s unique visual style was the development of filmic spaces that are imaginative and often fantastic, yet also absorbing and ‘believable’ in their completeness of vision. To achieve this effect on screen, a high level of detail was required during pre-production and production stages: not just in regards to the physical sets and models, but also lighting, editing, and other framing and emphatic devices. The ways in which the actors and the camera inhabited the sets created psychological spaces overlaying these physical environments.
Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives explores pivotal spaces from three of the director’s films: the Discovery spaceship from 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968; The Overlook Hotel from The Shining, 1980; and Huế City from Full Metal Jacket, 1987. All three filmic spaces are, in their own ways, disorientating experiences that draw attention to humans’ relationships with their environment, and the interplay between perception and physical place. Through original documents and photographs on loan from the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (UAL), the exhibition provides a glimpse of the extensive research, innovative techniques and meticulous designs that Kubrick used to make these spaces come alive on screen and seize the imaginations of generations of viewers.
The exhibition marks the publication of Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives by Black Dog Publishing, a collection of essays by scholars working closely with the Stanley Kubrick Archive to gain new insights into Kubrick’s 50 years of filmmaking, edited by Richard Daniels, Peter Krämer and Tatjana Ljujić. The anthology will be available in late August at the special launch price of £24 (RRP £29.95) from PAPERWORK Bookshop.
WORK Gallery and PAPERWORK Bookshop
10A Acton Street, London WC1X 9NG
Open 12–5.30 pm
Wednesday–Saturday
Closed bank holidays