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Author
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Topic: Art installation - Leeds.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-20-2011 04:17 PM
I know that there are several members here from Yorkshire, so the following may be of interest.
'Film for an Abandoned Projector' runs every Thursday from 6-8 pm at the old Lyric Picturehouse, Armley, Leeds until December 15th.
"In the darkness of the derelict Lyric House in the Armley area of Leeds, the cinema’s old Kalee projector plays a new 35mm film. Specific to its place, Skaer's sculptural film work is the imagined subconscious of the projector itself ... Through repeated screenings, the film slowly bears witness to its own presentation through scratches and marks that visibly scar and efface the surface of the image. At the end of the project the cinema will once again be dormant.
In Film For An Abandoned Projector Lucy Skaer further explores her interest in the relationship between sculpture and film; between the machine and the resulting psychological space created by it. Skaer was inspired to develop the project when she learned that Leeds was the primary producer of cinema projection equipment in the mid twentieth century. Through its neglect, this precision optical instrument has slipped from the mainstream to become marginal, allowing different images and agendas to inhabit this usually commercial format."
web page
I'm not sure about the 'Scratches and marks', but some original decoration can still be seen in the building which closed as a cinema in 1988 and after many years of disuse, and a spell as a 'pole dancing school', is now a church of some sort according to the sign outside, but still seems to be in the process of conversion/restoration. A large hole has had to be cut in the wall of a room built in the former balcony to let the light through. The film, which was shot with an old Arri 2C, is in two short reels of about eight minutes each which are run continuously; there is no sound.
The projectors are the Kalee 20s with Peerless arcs which were in use for the last few years that the building was open as a cinema, and the last projectionist is running the show.
The Kalee's, built locally in Leeds, still put out a good picture after 23 years of disuse.
A couple of mobile 'phone pictures:
Strangely, the large window behind the restored neon sign lets light directly into the projection box; the smaller window to the left with the light on is the rewind room.
This place is about two miles from the centre of Leeds. From Leeds station leave by the exit at the end of the North Concourse, turn left, bus stop S2 is a short distance along. Bus 4 runs every few minutes; Amberly Road stop is about ten minutes ride, and is just before the cinema.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-23-2011 10:12 AM
As I work in Leeds, I really must try to get to see this. Wonder where the Kalees came from and who refurbished them to get them back into use?
Incidentally, about three years ago they were doing some major work in the University of Leeds's confernece centre, and discovered a long since walled off projection booth (i.e. the portholes were now above a false ceiling and inside the void) which they wanted to turn into a store cupboard. Projectors were discovered still in situ there, and I was asked to take a look. The projectors were Westars that looked to me to be still potentially viable (they turned over on the motor shaft inching handle OK), and there were bulbs still in the lamphouses. I advised the people from estates that the bulbs needed to be removed by for safe disposal by a cinema engineer, and gave them a few names of people I knew to be based locally. I presume that this was eventually done, though I'm glad I wasn't the person who had to get those projectors, lamphouses and pedestals down the long spiral staircase, if they were indeed removed. In any case, I hope they didn't just end up in the scrapper.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-23-2011 03:18 PM
As I understand it from the projectionist the Kalees were installed in the '70s, replacing Simplexes on Western bases. The Magnarcs were retained from the previous installation. He didn't say where the Kalees came from; they still seem to be in good condition. The film runs continuously for the two hours or so that the building is open each Thursday. There's no obvious story to it, it has scenes of trees, sailing ships, the view from the projection room window, and what looks like a piece of MICC cable on the floor.
The story seems to be that the artist owns an old Arri 2C camera which she had restored, with the idea of making a film with an abandoned camera to show on an abandoned projector. She asked if anyone knew where there was one, and the projectionist, who ran the last show there in 1988 said that he thought the machines at the Lyric were still there, so she might be able to get the use of an entire disused cinema, rather than just a projector. The projectionist himself got the equipment working, and installed two new (to that venue) rectifiers.
He said that he hoped to see them used again, but I think it's unlikely. Despite the church sign outside I doubt if it's in use as such yet; there's no heating for example, and doesn't seem to be any proper lighting working in the auditorium. It's a barrel-vault auditorium, more typical of 1910 than 1922, when this place was said to have opened. The auditorium seems to have been shortened by a section at the back being walled off, and some sort of room constructed in the former balcony area at some time in the past. Some minor refurbishment work is in progress, presumably being carried out for the church people.
I think the last previous use of the building was by the 'Pole dancing school', but I don't know when that closed.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-25-2011 04:47 PM
Somewhere in the East End of London, I can't remember exactly where, there was a cinema which was built in the style of a mosque; that's not particularly unusual, I can think of a couple of others, after it closed as a cinema many years ago it went through several other uses, including a clothing factory I think, and eventually became ... a mosque.
I didn't get a picture of the projection room at Armley because it's quite small, though by no means as small as some of its era, and it was rather full of people. It's a pity that the arcs and rectifiers aren't Kalee, but the projectors are in pretty much original condition, with spoolboxes intact etc. It seems that money was always in short supply, so it was never modernised before closure, in 1988. Strangely, there are no fire shutters over the ports, nor any trace of them having been there in the past. There's also a small slide lantern, but it's mounted on either a shelf, or brackets, on the side wall, and doesn't seem to line up with the third port. Of course, it's particularly appropriate that Kalee projectors should be there; for anybody who doesn't know, Kalee projectors were built in Leeds by a firm named Kershaw who were taken over by Rank, and eventually closed down in, I think, 1958. Their demise was said to be at least in part due to the loses made on their 8-perf Vistavision projector, of which about six were built.
Several visitors while I was there said that they hoped film would be shown there again in the future. I don't think it's likely, but there is the opportunity on a table in the foyer to leave comments; Maybe the new owners of the building could be persuaded to leave the projectors in place, and to allow occasional use of them, maybe to show films made in Leeds.
The Neon sign was broken, but was restored by some people in Wakefield, who run courses on neon sign making. There was one last week, when I happened to be in Bradford, but there was no place available on it. The next one is in November, and I'm trying to get time off work to do it. If I can arrange this I may go back to the Lyric again. It was actually on the neon workshops website that I first read about the event at the Lyric.
I've just arrived back in London this evening; these five hour coach journeys without a break really don't do the circulation problems in my legs any good.
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