Centered within the multifaceted exhibition of sculpture, collage and still photography works, Stacey Steers’ newest work, entitled Edge of Alchemy, is a handmade film in which the famed historical actors Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor are each seamlessly appropriated from their early silent features and cast into a surreal epic with an upending of the Frankenstein story and an undercurrent of hive collapse. Edge of Alchemy is the third in a trilogy for Steers in which she examines inner worlds from the vantage point of her female leading character. The film takes shadows of the past and bridges the uncanny and the dire with startling presence and emotional resonance. The project is constructed from over 5,000 handmade collages, each photographed with 35mm film stock. Music by the Polish composer Lech Jankowski.
Steers’ ambitious project took five years to complete. The construction process is intuitive and organic: she selects motion sequences from early cinematic sources, prints the frames and re-contextualizes the action. The narrative evolves over time as she assembles and recombines appropriated images. She inserts her actors into newly imagined collage environments, built by hand from fragments of 19th century engravings and illustrations.
Stacey Steers, Edge of Alchemy
Robischon Gallery
March 16, 2017 – Saturday May 6, 2017
1740 Wazee Street
Denver, Colorado 80202
USA
