From Friday, Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York will be hosting a screening of Titanic—but not the one you know. Instead, this version surfaces as a labor of love, a shot-by-shot remake of the 1997 blockbuster, assembled over more than a decade by an artist and featuring a cast of hundreds.
“Titanic, A Deep Emotion” marks the New York premiere of Claudia Bitrán’s reimagining of the James Cameron film, crafted with a variety of disciplines from drawing and painting to performance and sculpture. The work’s lo-fi approach is evident—like the stop animation used for its opening scene with the submarines—but so is its ambition, which saw the Chilean artist recruit some 1,400 participants as collaborators, actors, and crew members.
“I really love to make work that broad audiences outside the art world can relate to, understand, or follow,” Bitrán told me over a phone call. “I adore this film. I love James Cameron’s craft. I think it’s really a perfect film that has aged really well.”
For the uninitiated, Titanic stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as doomed lovers Rose and Jack who meet onboard the equally ill-fated vessel. The film was an immediate hit upon its release in 1997, sweeping the Academy Awards and the box office. Its hold on the popular imagination has yet to diminish.
