Laura
Laura
Eric Metcalfe (Vancouver)
Opening: Friday, November 18 at 8pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday, November 19 at 2pm, with Eric Metcalfe and Paul Plimley
Visual artist Eric Metcalfe’s multi-media installation Laura and a special performance by The Paul Plimley Tommy Babin Experience, transform Open Space into a tantalizing film set where cinema, jazz and art converge.
Eric Metcalfe is obsessed with film noir and jazz. Laura resembles a stylized film set, based on the 1944 Otto Preminger classic of the same title. Metcalfe evokes the suggestive complexities of the original Laura to engage contemporary issues. References to film history circulate through Metcalfe’s work—even to his creative process, where he cast himself in the role of director, balancing the contributions of artists, musicians, sound artists, a sculptor and a writer. Critic Mark Harris summarizes the collaborative underpinnings of Metcalfe’s vivid work: “Metcalfe put together a team to give birth to his brainchild. Ideas were bandied about during a number of pre-construction meetings for all the world like the conference table confabulations common to Hollywood during an upcoming feature’s development process. Tasks were delegated, but overall control was never lost.” In this sense Metcalfe’s work and the music accompanying it exemplifies Open Space’s long-standing commitment to interdisciplinary engagement.