Georgina Starr’s latest work, LAFVA-funded Theda, will be showing at the  nca/nichido Contemporary Art in Tokyo as part of Starr’s first Japanese solo exhibition.

The exhibition runs from 6 April to 26 May, and will present a three screen video installation version of the work. Theda was premiered, as a single screen piece, at the Prince Charles Cinema in London last year, where it was accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by the London Improvisers Orchestra.

The work examines the vicarious nature of the cinematic experience and explores the silent film form through image and live sound. Experimenting with performance styles and narrative techniques Starr considers the movie screen as a mirror and how we use film fiction to explore and escape our own identity.

As well as the art of Theda Bara, Starr draws from many of the masters of the silent era; from the great early film-makers Louis Feuillade and Carl Th. Dreyer, to the German expressionist theatre of Max Reinhardt, and the theories and pre-1900 acting techniques of Francois Delsarte. She also looks to the lost or neglected talent of other actresses such as Alla Nazimova, Barbara La Marr, Marguerite Clark, Musidora, Maud Allen and many more.

Georgina Starr has been making large-scale video and film installations for the past 12 years. Her subjects are extraordinarily varied and her diverse body of work has incorporated video, film, animation, photography, music, writing and performance.

Some of the key themes of Starr's work - from Hypnodreamdruff (1996) a 6 screen multimedia work about the intertwining lives of a group of lonely eccentric characters, to Big V (2004) a four screen piece about teenage sexuality and Catholicism - explore the relationship between history and memory; attempting to extract meaning from collapsing realities, she makes complex and obsessive investigations into invisible, lost or fragile phenomena.

Her works have been exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Venice Biennale; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and Kunsthalle Wien. Solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, London; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Kunsthalle Zurich; Rooseum Centre for Contemporary Art, Malmo and the Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam.

More information on Starr’s Tokyo show can be found at the nichido Contemporary Art website.