Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard - Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work

The Gallery presents Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work, a new commission by British artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard. Their 3D video installation takes as its starting point one of the first 3D films ever produced – The Man from M.A.R.S. (A 2D version known as Radio-Mania, 1923 is held in the BFI National Archive). The artists have set about creating a contemporary adaptation of this film; they staged a rehearsal and filmed this using current 3D video and audio technology, capturing the actors, directors and musicians working on the script and score. The script was written in collaboration with writer and novelist Kirk Lake and the remarkable cast includes Kevin Eldon, Caroline Catz, Terrence Hardiman and Fenella Fielding.

The Man from M.A.R.S. was made in 1922 to demonstrate 'Teleview', a stereoscopic motion picture system created by Laurens Hammond who later went on to invent the Hammond Organ. In this silent film an inventor builds a radio transmission device capable of communicating with life on Mars only to wake up and find it was a dream. Following its premiere in New York, the film closed 24 days later, after which neither 'Teleview' nor the 3D film were seen again.

The Gallery has been transformed into a mind-bending stereoscopic limbo, warping the viewer's sense of space and time. It is a compelling work-in-progress stuck on repeat, like a locked-groove record. This entertaining, stark and immersive installation recalls Beckett, summoning an atmosphere that oscillates between the theatricality of the stage and the illusionism of cinema - occupying a state between extended reality and hallucination.

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work