Classic

Classic
Classic

2001, Ireland, 35mm/Mini DV, colour, silent, 20 min.

Peter McCaughey brings us the results of his "archaeological" investigations into the rise and fall of the Classic cinema in Renfield St Glasgow. Which, after a fire brought about by mysterious circumstances stood condemned to dereliction for an eight year period. On gaining access to the cinema space, the artist gathered fragments of film footage from the seven floors throughout the cinema. These fragments exposed to severe damage, fire, rain and corrosion were spliced together. The projected frames are at times a synthesis of Mimmo Rotella's collage works and the painted films of Stan Brakhage. Classic reveals Peter McCaugheys on going interests in narrative and fragment in cinema, while simultaneously engaging in memory and site. This film evokes an ambience of ghosts in an abstracted field of vision. The history of a space.