Tales of Love and Fear

The culmination of several years of research, Tales of Love and Fear is a site-specific artwork for the Concert Hall. A regular artist-in-residence since fall 2013, Lucy Raven has focused her research on the history and evolution of 3D-film technologies and animation techniques. Investigating the fluid cultural perception of spatial depth though an art-historical lens, she explores the mechanisms of industrial cinema production through analysis of the transnational circulation of labor and materials. 

Developed in collaboration with our production team, Tales of Love and Fear is comprised of a custom-built rig of counter-rotating platforms. A single stereoscopic photograph, taken by the artist during her research in India, is split by the two projectors into the left and right eye perspective. Conceived as a cinema for a single image, this piece expands and unifies our perception of the cinematic beyond the screen. 

Using field recordings taken during a screening of a Bollywood horror movie in Mumbai, the surround soundtrack, designed by Paul Corley, transports the viewer back into this cinematic environment. By translating and overlaying this specific auditory experience onto the Concert Hall, Tales of Love and Fear creates a composite architecture. Cones of light slowly revolve through the volume of the hall connecting the photographic image to the projection apparatus.