The Stanley Kubrick Archive, image © Luke Potter
Animate Projects and The Stanley Kubrick Archive have commissioned Jane and Louise Wilson to make a work in response to the archive’s holdings.
Jane and Louise have been spending time researching at the archive, at University of the Arts London, since March 2008 and are about to go into production.
They are focusing on Kubrick’s Aryan Papers project - a film about the Holocaust that Kubrick researched for many years, but which he never made.
Artists' statement
We have found our extensive research in the Kubrick archive, specifically around the Aryan Papers, both compelling and absorbing. Although the film never made it into production, the fragments of research around it are fascinating.
We want to make a work re-photographing images from the pre-production, research phase of ‘Aryan Papers’, using wardrobe research stills and period stills from Ealing film studios. The images that we’ve selected are, we hope, highly evocative - not only of the mood the film was trying to create, but because they also show the level and depth of the attention to detail that Kubrick had as a filmmaker.
As filmmakers, our own work involves research and development, lasting a year Stasi City, and four years for Governor's Island. So we readily identified with the Aryan Papers, particularly because, as artists, often the things we are involved in don't always come to fruition. But there remains the extensive time, involvement and research, all of which are always important and necessary. We would love to have seen this film made, but only having the initial fragments to go on makes it incredibly enigmatic. We want to explore this as it is - this enigmatic quality which makes it profoundly cinematic.
Jane and Louise Wilson
June 2008
The Stanley Kubrick Archive
The Archive is held at the University Archives and Special Collections Centre, University of the Arts London. It contains scripts, production notes, research, correspondence, storyboards, annotated books, sketches, photographs, 35mm film and out-takes, videotapes, scores, sound recordings, models, set designs, props, costumes, lighting plans, equipment and memorabilia.
The University Archives and Special Collections Centre is a Library and Learning Resources facility that preserves, enhances and promotes the rich and varied collections of the University. The Centre seeks to inform, inspire, engage and excite a diverse range of audiences in support of their creativity, learning and research in art, design, fashion, communications and the performing arts.
London College of Communication
London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, where The Stanley Kubrick Archive is held, is part of the Skillset Screen Academy network, with animation as one of the key specialist areas. The Animation Department is developing a programme that incorporates the benefits of a solid foundation in animation skills alongside the recognition that these can be applied in a range of developing formats in a wider context.