UK / Duration 7m Super-16mm colour film transferred to HD / 2011

On the abandoned set of a 1950s musical film, an aristocratic beauty and a wounded beast dance an endless dance of desire and betrayal. The couple dance a hot tango. Suddenly, the beast pushes the princess away; he is full of regret, and he wants her no more. The beast pulls out a revolver, and he offers it to the princess. Magically, she makes the gun disappear. The couple dance a tender ballet to swooning strings. The beast turns to face the beauty, but she recoils in horror at his terrible wounds. The beast dances an obsessive dance, trying to persuade the princess that they should be together after all. But she is still hurt, and she cannot take him back. Still he sways and he dances, his body twisting hysterically, and this time she is persuaded. They come together in an explosive, show-stopping dance. She jumps into his arms, they kiss, and they dance a hot tango. Suddenly, the beast pushes the princess away; he is full of regret, and he wants her no more. The beast pulls out a revolver…

A text on ‘COMMA 39’, written by the Guardian’s chief art critic Adrian Searle, was commissioned on the occasion of the work’s first exhibition at Bloomberg SPACE:
bloombergspace.com/archive/comma39_essay.html

‘COMMA 39’ was commissioned by Bloomberg. Made at The Place.

Cast: Greig Cooke / Michela Meazza
Production: Director: Stuart Croft / Line Producer: Lisa James / Choreographer: Ben Wright / Music: Mark Lo / Director of Photography: Jean-Louis Schuller / Production / Designer: Miren Marañón / Costume Design: Sophie Howard / Editor: Stuart Croft

Stuart Croft’s work in moving image explores the subjects of
recurrence, deception, power and desire. Croft’s gallery-based
films typically employ the apparatus of fiction cinema, and the
artist uses these methodologies to draw on the normatively
linear themes of the cinematic. Specific textual or editorial
structures are frequently applied to these subjects, creating
endlessly recurrent or irrational scenarios that are brought to
fruition within the circular, looping condition of the gallery
space.
Since completing his MA at Chelsea College of Art in 1998,
Croft has exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide,
including M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Antwerp;
Bloomberg Space, London; PS1/MoMA, New York; Serpentine
Gallery Pavilion, London; Kunsthalle Luzern, Switzerland; Site
Gallery, Sheffield; FACT, Liverpool; Royal Academy, London;
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Chisenhale Gallery,
London; g39, Cardiff; Galerie Pristine, Monterrey; White Box,
New York; Gasworks Gallery, London; Kulturverein BB15,
Linz; Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy; REIS Projects, Antwerp;
Fiedler Contemporary, Cologne.
Croft has received funding and commissions from AHRC (Arts
& Humanities Research Council); Arts Council England;
Bloomberg; London Arts, and RCA Research. His work has
been reviewed in numerous publications, including Artforum;
Art Monthly; Contemporary; Art Review; The Guardian and
Time Out. Stuart Croft is a lecturer at the Royal College of
Art, where he established the Moving Image Studio in 2009.