Psycho Nacirema @ Pace London

Having opened a couple of weeks ago, Pace´s latest exhibition “Psycho Nacirema” presents itself as one of the most attractive proposals for this first part of the summer in central London.

P.N., Franco’s first major exhibition in the UK presented by the Scottish artist Douglas Gordon presents a mise-en-scène of director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho, remodelling the infamous Bates Motel where the intrigue of the film takes place, intertwined with the 1920’s Arbuckle scandal.

The artists first collaborated on the Rebel constellation, a work presented at the Venice Film Festival, in September 2011 and on Rebel, an exhibition presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2012. In these works, Franco acted as a producer for Gordon, while in Psycho Nacirema Gordon has acted as a curator and teacher for Franco.

In Psycho Nacirema, James Franco uses the motel structure as both a physical and literal framework, reinterpreting iconic scenes from the original film through evocative details such as the motel neon signage or the infamous shower room where the film character Marion Crane, is murdered. One of Gordon’s most well-known works is 24 Hour Psycho (1993), a projection of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film slowed down to last an entire day which also sparked inspiration for the exhibition.

Franco’s fascination with the subject leads to the final room of the exhibition. A four-way projected film which shows the re-enactment of the scenario that supposedly took place in Room 1219 where Arbuckle was found with Rappe who was mysteriously injured and distressed. Marrying the Psycho thriller with the Arbuckle scandal, the exhibition performs interplay of reality with fiction, compelling the viewers to address how cinema is entrenched in the modern collective consciousness.

P.N. will run until late July @ Pace London.