![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ryslig: Multiversal Museum
Jul. 6th, 2023 07:46 pmMULTIVERSAL MUSEUM
Stepping into the Robin Buckley exhibit is like stepping back in time. Not too far back, just to 1986. The exhibit is set up like a 1980's era video rental store, the walls lined with rows of white shelves full of VHS tapes, interspersed with large illuminated movie posters for films like The Wiz, Goonies, and St. Elmo's Fire. The ceiling is adorned with a green awning with orange lettering displaying the name: Family Video. Interspersed throughout the exhibit are larger than life cardboard standees of famous 1980s movie stars in their biggest roles: Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa.
But the main feature of the exhibit is a large television screen, mounted in the center of the tableau, which shows videos on a pre-programmed loop. All of Robin's favorite movies are represented, interspersed with video snapshots depicting scenes from Robin's past. In between each film is a short intermission bumper with a catchy jingle directing viewers to go to the lobby and purchase some concessions.
Anyone who wants to learn about Robin and her life will have to sit through the whole recording, start to finish. You don't get to see snippets of her awkward teen crush on amateur crooner Tammy Thompson in sophomore year until you've watched all of Billy Wilder's The Apartment. If you want to witness her adrenaline pumping adventure escaping from a secret underground Russian military base, you'll have to wait until Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress is finished. And you'll have to wait until the end credits of the 1945 French classic Children of Paradise have finished rolling to watch scenes of Robin and her friends sneaking through an abandoned house to try to ambush and kill a powerful psychic enemy covered in vinelike tentacles.
The final film on display is the seminal 80's teen romp Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but oddly, this movie doesn't play the whole way through. At exactly 53 minutes and 5 seconds into the runtime, the screen displays a shot of heartthrob Phoebe Cates climbing out of a swimming pool in a revealing red bikini. Phoebe reaches up to undo the clasp holding the front of her bikini, and the video freezes, as though someone has pressed the pause button on the remote. This image lingers, framed by jittery VHS artifacts, for a solid two minutes, before the screen goes black. After five minutes of being off, the recording starts again from the top with The Apartment.
But the main feature of the exhibit is a large television screen, mounted in the center of the tableau, which shows videos on a pre-programmed loop. All of Robin's favorite movies are represented, interspersed with video snapshots depicting scenes from Robin's past. In between each film is a short intermission bumper with a catchy jingle directing viewers to go to the lobby and purchase some concessions.
Anyone who wants to learn about Robin and her life will have to sit through the whole recording, start to finish. You don't get to see snippets of her awkward teen crush on amateur crooner Tammy Thompson in sophomore year until you've watched all of Billy Wilder's The Apartment. If you want to witness her adrenaline pumping adventure escaping from a secret underground Russian military base, you'll have to wait until Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress is finished. And you'll have to wait until the end credits of the 1945 French classic Children of Paradise have finished rolling to watch scenes of Robin and her friends sneaking through an abandoned house to try to ambush and kill a powerful psychic enemy covered in vinelike tentacles.
The final film on display is the seminal 80's teen romp Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but oddly, this movie doesn't play the whole way through. At exactly 53 minutes and 5 seconds into the runtime, the screen displays a shot of heartthrob Phoebe Cates climbing out of a swimming pool in a revealing red bikini. Phoebe reaches up to undo the clasp holding the front of her bikini, and the video freezes, as though someone has pressed the pause button on the remote. This image lingers, framed by jittery VHS artifacts, for a solid two minutes, before the screen goes black. After five minutes of being off, the recording starts again from the top with The Apartment.
VISUALS