Resurrection Restoration (2016)

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  • Installation view, Tintype, London (photographed by Jonathon Allen)

  • Installation view, Tintype, London (photographed by Jonathon Allen)

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High Definition video | 06:17

single-channel video projection with sound

Resurrection Manifestations documents the trajectory of the striking former Carlton Cinema, a historical landmark on Essex Road, London, from 1930’s cine-variety to its present restoration and reincarnation as a place of worship. The work was filmed while the auditorium was being renovated and restored by it’s new owners, the Evangelical Church ‘Resurrection Manifestations’. The film features the church choir during services and rehearsals intercut with the restoration work taking place at the same time.

Here the secular space of worship – the picture palace – is repurposed as a scared space – re-casting the building’s original iconography while aligning cinema’s suspension of disbelief with spiritual notions of faith. The idea of re-birth is both literal – in the restoration of the building – and metaphorical in the way that resurrection underlies the ethos of this form of religion.

Credits:
  • Featuring: The New Rivers Choir
  • Camera: Chin Okoronkwo, Orestis Lambrou, Catherine Derry, Joe Hewitt
  • Sound Recording and Mix: Tom Sedgwick
  • Editing: Lynne Marsh
  • Grade: Sue Giovanni
  • Special thank you to Prince Nuako from Gracepoint and Teresa Grimes from Tintype
  • Commissioned by Tintype for Essex Road III
  • Funding: Arts Council England and Islington’s Local Initiatives Fund