REVIEW: [The Graphic Art of Harry Potter] @ House of MinaLima, London

The Graphic Art of Harry Potter
3 June 2016 - 4 February 2017
House of MinaLima, 26 Greek Street, Soho, London, W1D 5DE

Last week I had some time to have a look at the pop-up exhibition in Soho, that features a wide range of props and original illustrations for the Harry Potter film series. Graphic designers Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima (whose names sound uncannily like they belong in said films) are the brains behind the wonderfully detailed and extensive works of art that are the printed medium in these films. From posters, newspapers, books, packaging and plenty more, this is a feast of the eyes for any Harry Potter fan. In fact, even if you aren't a Harry Potter fan, it would be difficult not to be impressed and delighted by the sheer amount of imagination and creativity that have gone into these props. Even more so when you remember that most of these props will have only been featured on screen for a few seconds, maybe less or not at all. It's an immersive sense of dedication that the two clearly project in these elaborate examples.

The exhibition isn't huge but there's something very charming about how modest the size of the venue is, crammed full to the brim with Harry Potter nostalgia and feels even more like an adventure into some place hidden and special. In a way the whole ambience of the pop-up is made to feel like a shop you may encounter on Diagon Alley in the wizarding world.

PRACTICE: A Study of Corridors

Anyone who knows me, will know that I am fascinated by corridors, both from an architectural perspective and from a psychological perspective (which is why I often find my favourite examples of corridor shots from film).

Corridors act as a transitional bridge between spaces, their function is to take us from one destination to the next. Very rarely does is a corridor constructed to be a destination in itself. This is why the corridor has often proved to be such a dynamic setting in film. It preludes to a sense of expectation, of something beyond and unknown. I like exploring the idea of the corridor as being the illusion of infinity, of a route that extends so far, we can no longer see its end.

Various Screenshots taken from Film

REFERENCE: Traps and Manoeuvres

Often in my influences, film plays a big part in inspiring me in the use of space to create mood and express narrative. In the realm of film, anything is possible in terms of set design.

In this scene from Resident Evil (2002) not only does the space captivate me, but the way in which the characters move within the space. What really strikes me about this scene is how bright it is. Clean, light, nothing to hide. What often tends to happen in film, is that there is a common association between small spaces with tension and this often means dark, uncomfortable, and shadowed sets -making us fear what we can't see. In this instance, the corridor is anything but, it's stark. And it works in the film's favour. The starkness and sterile nature of the scene will make everything  that happens within it more pronounced. In most films, it's what we can't see, what we make for ourselves that is more terrifying. In a daring juxtaposition, it is challenging us to face what the scene is about to present with a candid reality. What is more terrifying is that they want us to see.

 

Resident Evil (2002) directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

One of the other great qualities about this scene is how it dictates the movement of the charcters trapped within it. As these lasers begin to cross through the length of the corridor, the characters have no choice but to evade as best they can to survive. It breaks the already small space into even smaller ones, adding to the claustrophobia and lack of escape that dooms the characters.

It just goes to show that there aren't any rules when using spaces to create a particular atmosphere, it is how you utilise what goes beyond just the space with imagination that make these scenes iconic.

REFERENCE: Confinement in Film

Confinement, enclosure and claustrophobia are all extremely common forms of fear and paranoia that most people can unanimously relate to in some way. The use of confined spaces in film is possibly the most frequently utilised method of creating fear, tension and anxiety. It is because many of us can relate to this predicament that they have such an effect on us, it starts very early on in childhood. Our exploration of spaces and the world only leads to more, we are unsure where these spaces and pathways take us. At the basis of all these emotions is our sense of curiosity and fear of the unknown and surprise. These all work together to emphasise the most basic of spatial phobias.

Alice in Wonderland (1999) directed by Nick Willing

Alice in Wonderland directed by Jan Svankmajor

Kill Bill Volume. 2 (2004) directed by Quentin Tarantino

REFERENCE: If I Can't See You, Can You Still See Me?

I am fascinated by film and books that explore into the worlds of those that may inhabit alternate realities to our own. People who have been isolated from society, blinded, mute, on a voiceless island in the midst of our world. It's a world that cannot be entered or understood by anyone other than someone who has been there. In that way, we could never imagine or possibly experience what and how they perceive the world. How it differs from our own. They are trapped in their own world, one that no one else can relate to. It's a lonely place.

Dogtooth (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Dogtooth (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Dogtooth (2009) directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Dogtooth is a film that explores the concept of isolation to its extreme. How people may behave and perceive their world completely differently when they are cut off from the rest of society. The film's insights are startling and haunting, a dystopian fear of a potential existence that seems terrifyingly otherworldly.

Blindness (2008) directed by Fernando Meirelles

"The only thing more terrifying than blindness is being the only one who can see."

Dystopian drama has often been a subject of exploration, a window into a darker reality we hope to avoid. Our fear is in fact due to its very likeliness to become a possibility in our lives. The best kind of dystopias are the ones that don't seem too far fetched or removed, the ones that everyone may and can fear. The fact we can comprehend vaguely how it would be to live in such a space, the psychological impact is far greater. If the world around us changes, so do we.

The Diving Bell and Butterfly (2007) directed by Julian Schnabel

REFERENCE: Leap into the Void

Untitled (2010) by Lissy Elle

Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) directed by Samuel Bayer

Self Portrait "Suspended V" (2004) by Sam Taylor Wood

Leap into the Void (1960) by Yves Klein

29 levels of freedom (2003) by Li Wei

All these images seem to contain a haunting display of an inbetween space, an unbalanced activity, ambiguous whether the image sways more towards pleasure or pain. The idea of being completely weightless and free. I love artists that play with the movement of the body in mysterious ways. Levitation is one of those strange super powers that people often fantasise about having. On a similar level to flight, being able to simply float above the ground and away seems to be the ultimate contradiction to reality, to any grounding. To magic.

REFERENCE: A Distorted Perception

Requiem for a Dream (2000) directed by Darren Aronofsky

Garden State (2004) directed by Zach Braff

Black Swan (2011) directed by Darren Aronofsky

Keira Knightley featured in Chanel Advert

Coined by philosopher and theorist Michel Foucault, heterotopia refers to spaces of otherness. That are neither here or there, both physical and mental, much like the moment you see yourself in the mirror. What you see in a mirror does not exist, however the object of a mirror does exist in solid reality and offers us a perception of truth. It's a parallel space that only seems to exist inbetween, an uneasy balance of mind and matter.

REFERENCE: We're Masters of Disguise

"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping your and maybe you can sense our lifestyles are probably comparable...I simply am not there." -American Psycho (2000)

American Psycho (2000) directed by Mary Harron

Vanilla Sky (2001) directed by Cameron Crowe

REFERENCE: The Faceless Maddening Crowd

A Single Man (2009) directed by Tom Ford

Closer (2004) directed by Mike Nichols

Lost in Translation (2003) directed by Sofia Coppola



REFERENCE: Lost in Space

Garden State (2004) directed by Zach Braff

What interests me the most is always the human and the psychological behind the façade of surface. I like the idea that someone can become so immersed, so lost in their environment, they barely, if at all exist. You can't distinguish yourself from the world or from anything else anymore. I look at our struggle with alienation and isolation in society, our tendency to become faceless and hidden.

"...in such a press of humanity -of strangers- individuals become as memorable as lampposts. Certain people retreat gladly into a world of anoymity, others enter that world and despair." -P91, Too Close for Comfort by Paul M. Insel & Henry Clay Lindgren

Helena Almeida