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Après-coup - Exhibition

Après-Coup was a solo show of new works by Toran to inaugurate the opening of a gallery in Geneva dedicated to design, commissioned by the Haute École d’Art et Design (HEAD). The exhibition examined the influence of Freud’s theory (later expanded on by Lacan) of Après-Coup (‘Afterwardsness’ in English) as a narrative vehicle within cinema, and the resulting codes that have hardened within the psychological thriller and horror genres.

Methodologically, this involved categorising instances, actions and objects in over 50 films spanning from post-Second World War (when psychoanalytic theory first become popular in America) to the 1980s (the last decade before the proliferation of purposefully derivative horror filmmaking). Toran meticulously dissected films such as Marnie, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Eyes Without a Face, Nightmare on Elm Street, Dead Ringers, The Girl who Knew Too Much, The Dark Mirror, Sisters, Repulsion and Hellraiser in order to isolate key conventions, such as stock characters, cinematographic techniques, sound effects, scenographies and props: the woman in peril, the monster inside, mental traumas transmogrified into physical form, twins or doubling, flashbacks, telephones, scissors, hair, blood and mirrors. The research informed work that was then presented in the gallery through models, film sequences, soundtracks and props. Toran gave an artist talk on the opening day of the exhibition.