Ursula Mayer’s films interweave space and time, and reference popular music, avant-garde and classical Hollywood films as well as architecture.
In this talk, which will conclude our Women Surrealist Filmmakers series, artist and filmmaker Ursula Mayer will present two of her seminal 16mm films: The Lunch in Fur and The Crystal Gaze, plus a post-screening discussion and opportunity for audience questions.
The Lunch in Fur (15)
(Le Déjeuner en Fourrure)
Dir Ursula Mayer/2008/8 mins
Mayer presents a fictional meeting in a late modernist 1960s glasshouse between three historical personalities in their later years: the artist Meret Oppenheim, the singer Josephine Baker and the photographer Dora Maar who, in a state of contemplation, recall different events in their lives. With references to the history of art and film, Mayer drafts multiple images of memory through space and touched objects in this captivating short film.
THE CRYSTAL GAZE (15)
Dir Ursula Mayer/2007/8 mins
The tale of three women who occupy a lavish setting in the magnificent Art deco rooms of the Eltham Palace, London. With the help of these women, Mayer creates a visual parallel to the tradition of the classical Hollywood film era and its iconic actors, as they parade around in their impeccable period clothing and pearl jewellry reminiscent of the 1920s style. In contrast to her previous films, The Crystal Gaze features a script in the form of single statements, monologues and quotes.
Ursula Mayer was born in Austria and currently lives and works in London. She graduated in 1996 at The Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna She also studied at the Royal College of Art, London in 1995 and finished her MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London in 2006. Since 1996 she has exhibited internationally.