Creating new meanings through collages of classic Hollywood films

June 22, 20243 Mins Read

Creating new meanings through collages of classic Hollywood films

Ti Gong

“Double Feature,” a video art exhibition, opened in Jing’an District on Friday, inviting the audience on a thought-provoking journey to explore the boundaries of pop culture.

Presented by Marco Brambilla, a London-based artist renowned for his intricate “recontextualizations” of popular imagery and pioneering use of digital imaging technologies, the exhibition is ongoing at Fotografiska Shanghai through October 7.

The video works use video collages of classic Hollywood films to create new meanings and explore tensions between reality and illusion. Assembled in gigantic video projections, the works create a whole new immersive cinematographic experience.

“Double Feature” echoes the nostalgic practice of a long discontinued motion picture industry phenomenon; the programming of two films instead of the modern single-feature screening. The exhibition presents two pieces that showcase Brambilla’s mastery of visual storytelling and digital art through his Megaplex series – “Heaven’s Gate” and “King Size.”

The visual references in “Heaven’s Gate” are derived from Hollywood’s golden-age and include samples from iconic moments of cinematic history.

Employing state-of-the-art digital compositing technology, Brambilla creates a satirical experience that re-contextualizes film samples and fantastical set pieces into infinitely looping memes. The immersive installation challenges people’s perception of gaming, reality TV, and Hollywood, offering a glimpse into a hyper-sensory parallel universe.

Ti Gong

Viewers take in the images.

The other artwork, “King Size,” presents a visual meditation on the intertwined legacies of Elvis Presley and Las Vegas, symbolically ascending from the Nevada desert to a futuristic Vegas Metropolis. The four-minute continuous loop video employs looping film samples and AI-generated imagery to create a surreal upward scrolling tableau.

Brambilla is both an artist and a full-feature film director. His creative themes mainly concentrate on consumerism concepts, popular images and human history and collective storytelling consciousness.

“Characters and scenes sampled from Hollywood cinema which represent collective storytelling consciousness are given new implications, satirizing the overproduction under excessive consumption and images of over saturation that overload senses,” he explained.

Fotografiska, the Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art, and Culture, was founded in Stockholm with a commitment to showcasing thought-provoking and cutting-edge visual art.

Fotografiska Shanghai covering 4,600 square meters in the Suzhou Creek area and opening in October, 2023, offers a captivating program of exhibitions, events, concerts, workshops, and talks with a strong focus on the promotion of Chinese and Asian artists.

“The museum has 12 projectors and a special sound system, enabling it to explore this kind of creation,” said Christian Devillers, managing director of Fotografiska China. “It’s very interesting because I think this (video art exhibition) is a field which is new.

“There have been a lot of immersive shows recently with educational topics or just pure entertainment, and we are interested to explore how artists are using this kind of environment to create some special programs.”