Profound, intimate and unsettling – this retrospective exhibition of Stuart Croft’s cinematic work is like stepping into a dreamscape.
Stuart Croft’s films are one of a kind. The late filmmaker broke all the rules, creating worlds where time moves fluidly, and narratives unfold with an eerie slowness that draws you deeper into each scene.
‘Eternal Return’ is the first major exhibition of Croft’s work since his untimely passing in 2015. Visit Leeds Art Gallery from Friday 8th November 2024 to April 6th April 2025 to explore it for yourself.
Stuart Croft, Drive In, 2007 © Stuart Croft Foundation. All rights reserved, DACS/ Artimage 2022. Photographer: Hugo Glendinning
Known for his hauntingly enigmatic films, his unique style appeals to cinephiles far and wide, from his birthplace in Leeds to London, where he spent much of his adult life, and beyond.
Borrowing from gestures, tropes, genres and images from Hollywood movies, he stitched these familiar themes into highly original films that subvert audience expectations in clever and playful ways.
The exhibition is not just a screening of Croft’s films but a reimagining of his cinematic universe, with the halls of Leeds Art Gallery radically transformed into a sequence of immersive spaces.
Stuart Croft, Remetior, 2014 © Stuart Croft Foundation. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2022.
Each space displays an infinitely looping narrative film with no distinct beginning, middle or end. Four of Croft’s major titles are included – The Stag Without a Heart, Drive In, Remetior and Comma 39.
But here’s the twist. Each of the spaces is shrouded in pitch black and you’ll be guided through by torchlight. The result? An eerie, discombobulating experience and a chance to see Croft’s films in a whole new light.
Each space reflects the setting of the film that’s playing. The Remetior room has been built to be small and claustrophobic, evoking the claustrophobia of the spaceship, while Comma 39 uses the gallery’s cavernous original architecture and columns to mirror the grandeur of the Hollywood style set.
Stuart Croft, The Stag Without a Heart, 2010 © Stuart Croft Foundation. All rights reserved, DACS/ Artimage 2022. Photographer: William Martin
These immersive worlds echo Croft’s recurring motifs of looping time, isolated characters and unsettling tension, taking the typical gallery experience and turning it into an evocative, cinematic dreamscape.
Visitors can travel around the spaces in a looping figure of eight, mirroring the circular film loop used in each of Stuart Croft’s films. It’s an invitation to pause, observe and become submerged in Croft’s hypnotic craft.
For those familiar with his films, it offers a fresh perspective, inviting viewers to traverse the physical spaces that echo the psychological landscapes he so often explored.
Portrait of Stuart Croft on set of The Stag Without a Heart, 2010. © Stuart Croft Foundation. All rights reserved, DACS/ Artimage 2022. Photographer: William Martin
For new audiences, the exhibition’s unique approach serves as an ideal introduction to Croft’s work, capturing his fascination with contemplative spaces, abstract themes, and surreal narratives.
‘Eternal Return’ is presented in partnership with the Stuart Croft Foundation. Established by the Croft’s family and friends after his death, the Foundation’s mission is to make accessible the artist’s legacy and archive.
And it certainly does just that. Absorbing, captivating and undeniably beautiful, the exhibition marks a moving tribute to an artist whose distinctive brand of cinema has left a lasting legacy in contemporary video art.
Eternal Return will be at Leeds Art Gallery from Friday 8th November 2024 to Sunday 6th April 2025. The gallery is open from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, and from 11am to 3pm on Sundays.
Cover image: Stuart Croft, Comma 39, 2011 © Stuart Croft Foundation. All rights reserved, DACS/ Artimage 2022. Photographer: William Martin.
