Cinema Cats
JUDE MONTAGUE
Cats have inspired worship throughout history. They are allegedly the second most popular search on the internet, and have been the focus of films that have been significant in my life. My daughter grew up on The Lion King (1994) and our own house cat was regularly shown in its kingdom. I will have new work at my next exhibition showing it held under the arms.
Catzilla
I was fascinated by the lions in Joy Adamson’s Born Free (1966). Puss in Boots (2011) was a family favourite, and a poster of the wide-eyed ginger hero hangs up in the lounge. This exhibition of cinema cats is inspired by all these films, and casts cats as the main characters in other films, including those that never existed.
I make monoprints on my etching press on King’s Road in the Montague Armstrong workshop. These posters are one-offs, fine art pieces rather than commercial reproductions. They are not literal cinema posters, although some relate to films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963). I am often inspired by art from the former Soviet Union, particularly Czech and Polish cinema posters, and it’s a dream of mine to visit the Terry Posters shop in Prague, where they have the greatest collection of film posters from the 1950s to 1989. Whenever I feel the need of inspiration, I browse this collection online.
The Cinema Cats exhibition has been selected by the Electric Palace Cinema for Coastal Currents in September – a first for this classic little cinema – and it opens with an evening screening of Kedi (2016) a magical documentary about the street cats of Istanbul told from a cat’s eye perspective.
Cats have been part of cinema’s stories since the very first days, and there will also be a chance to see A Sick Kitten (1901), in which two children play doctors with a kitten suffering from an unknown illness. Interestingly this was made by pioneer filmmaker George Albert Smith, who created most of his innovative films in Hove where he had his base at St Ann’s Well Gardens.
Vertigo
Here in Sussex he also staged public exhibitions including hot air ballooning, parachute jumping, a hermit living in a cave, and various magic lantern shows. He collaborated with his old friend Georges Méliès at the Star Films studios at Montreuil in Paris, one of the most famous early filmmakers. For his trick films and fantasies such as Trip to the Moon (1902) with an iconic scene of a space capsule crash landing on the moon’s face. It is wonderful to see these early films in this unusual cinema space, which echoes how in the days of cinematography before purpose-built auditoriums, when films would be screened in shops and other buildings.
The cinema would like to see more creatives interacting with the world of cinema and extending the use of this unusual venue, reflecting the experimentation that was part of the earliest filmmaking culture. Because of the work of G. A. Smith, and his wife, actor-director Laura Bayley, on the South coast, the exhibition seems very appropriate for Hastings. As entertainers, they recognised the everlasting appeal of the cat.
Kedi, Electric Palace Cinema, Thursday 31 August, 11am & 7.30pm Evening screening includes two short silent cinema cat classics plus live music accompaniment from artists and musicians Montague Armstrong. Cinema Cats exhibition for Coastal Currents opens Thursday 31 August, and runs throughout September.
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