In the spring, artist Claudia Bitran visited Dallas and worked with local artists and students on A Deep Emotion, an ambitious frame-by-frame remake of James Cameron’s Titanic. Bitran collaborated with more than 600 participants across 19 cities to construct the remake, relying on the support of communities for actors and locations.
Sweet Pass Sculpture Park sponsored the workshop behind the project in Dallas. Now, it’s exhibiting a newly completed trailer for A Deep Emotion alongside Falling, an animated video work by Bitran from 2018.
As humorous as A Deep Emotion is with its DIY approach, it quickly becomes a multi-layered investigation into ideas of class, gender and the motion picture industry. Bitran’s creative solutions for re-building the world of Titanic complicate the archetypal romance at the center of the film. Women, people of color and even children take turns playing Jack, and the handmade props and sets call attention to the enormous amount of capital needed to create movies. Despite its scale, the work never fails to be intimate as it searches for humanity inside of a blockbuster.
Details
Through July 31. Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, 402 Fabrication St., Dallas. Visit sweetpasssculpturepark.com for open hours or email sweetpasssculpturepark@gmail.com for an appointment.
