With the days still short and gloomy, February’s the ideal time to immerse yourself in our new exhibition Jamie Shovlin: Hiker Meat, which focuses on a dark 70s slasher film that never actually existed. Hiker Meat has been imagined by Shovlin to represent an archetype of the exploitation film style, and – having earlier produced a screenplay, soundtrack and cut-and-paste prototype from found film clips – he and Cornerhouse Artist Film have now ‘remade’ key sequences from the film.
This exhibition captures the genesis of the project and the collaborative nature of its delivery, bringing together props, costumes, memorabilia and an immersive audio visual installation. And on Wed 12 Feb you can spin your own yarn at our Tales of Whatever storytelling session True Lies at The Gaslamp on Bridge St – where participants’ tales will sit on the border of truth and fiction.
On Thu 6 Feb we’ll launch the next Cornerhouse Project in our Café & Bar, Geoff Crossley: My Father’s House. In 2010 Crossley became the executor of his mother’s will, and had to sell the family home. After it was re-decorated it took on a different feel, which he captured in a series of photos, but the pictures felt empty. Reworking and combining them with snaps found among his parents’ possessions, Crossley rekindled his lingering memories and created the images in this exhibition – all of which are for sale. Join us in the bar for the informal launch, from 18:00 – 20:00.
There’s also plenty of activity in our cinemas this month, and on Mon 10 Feb we host the unique ‘stage and screen’ experience The Answer to Everything by Streetwise Opera. Featuring contemporary operatic compositions alongside revered classical works, combining live and on-screen action, and featuring homeless and ex-homeless performers as well as professionals, this satire on the business world is distinctive and highly involving – and you’re invited to take part as a conference delegate.
If you like your film events to break new ground, don’t miss our live screening of Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, Volumes 1 & 2 on Sat 22 Feb. This highly anticipated film odyssey relates the life story of self-diagnosed nymphomaniac Joe, via a jaw-dropping, all-star cast including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman and Willem Dafoe. The screening will be broadcast live from Curzon Chelsea where members of the cast will introduce the two volumes, and take part in an on-stage interview following the screening.
With the Oscars on the way there’ll be great films hitting our screens throughout the month. We’re particularly looking forward to Dallas Buyers Club, from Fri 7 Feb, starring Matthew McConaughey as a Texan rodeo cowboy who indulges his passions for drink, drugs and women. Hospitalised following an accident in 1985 he’s stunned to find he is HIV positive, and with treatment limited in America begins smuggling sought-after alternative medicines from overseas.
Later in the month, treat your special someone to our Valentine’s preview of Jim Jarmusch’s new film, Only Lovers Left Alive. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, Mia Wasikowska and John Hurt, the film depicts the reunion of a depressed underground musician and his resilient, enigmatic lover; but their debauched idyll is soon disrupted by her wild younger sister. Can these fragile outsiders survive as the world collapses around them?
Also opening on Valentine’s Day is Her, the tale of a heartbroken commercial writer who becomes intrigued with an intuitive new computer operating system. Starting it up he’s delighted to meet ‘Samantha,’ a bright, female voice which is insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny, and as their needs and desires grow their friendship turns into love.
If you’d like your evening to go the same way make a night of it with our Café’s Valentine’s Mezze, with eight dishes available for £19.95 or £29.95 with a bottle of Prosecco. Many a meaningful relationship has been forged in our Café and Bar so we’ll lower the lights and see you there – we’ll be wearing a red carnation.