The Photographers' Gallery 5 and 8 Great Newport Street WC2H7HY London Royaume-Uni
Filmed in and around the Soho area, London-based artist Jordan Baseman (USA, b.1960) has interviewed some of its residents, ranging from the notorious to the anonymous. The interviews, which are then interspersed with abstract footage of Soho itself, reflecting Baseman’s own take on the traditional documentary film format.
The three resulting films are being screened below ground, in the lower ground floor of the Gallery, centering around the title piece Dark is the Night. Recorded nocturnally over a six-month period, footage of empty and dimly lit Soho streets is set against a narration by Lucy, a transsexual prostitute, who describes her experiences of working in Soho.
In The Dandy Doctrine (A Delightful Illusion), Baseman interviews the writer, artist and dandy Sebastian Horsley. Filmed at his home in the centre of Soho, Horsley discusses his philosophies on dandyism and how Soho epitomises these ideals.
Activist Alan Wakeman compares his life as a gay man in the 1960s with the liberal gay scene of Soho today in the piece Nasty Piece of Stuff. Wakeman’s speech patterns are echoed rhythmically by the stops and starts in the film footage, merging the visual with the aural.
The interview process is at the heart of all of Baseman’s work. His interest in the personal and intimate details of his subjects’ lives is sensitively represented in these poetic and revealing films.
These new film works have been co-commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery and ArtSway.