louie-thornton__unknown__ual__2025

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School: RCA
Program:
Year: 2025
Author(s):

Source: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/630695/cover

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# Project Description

Apollo

Louie Thornton

Summary

Final work

Awards

Nominated | MullenLowe NOVA Awards 2025

I'm a multidisciplinary artist with a background in Geography. I'm interested in immersive set design and spatial intervention, working physically with materials using dust sheets, metal, chiffon, scrap car parts with soundscapes that screech and hum.

I'm a multidisciplinary artist with a background in Geography. I'm interested in immersive set de...

College Central Saint Martins

Course MA Performance: Design and Practice

Graduation year 2025

The concept of this film was to make a piece with no dialogue using visual storytelling to depict how queerness and grief might intersect in unusual ways.

It was born out of a piece I wrote and shared after learning about the death of a transmasculine sex worker, with a substantial social media / influence. I wanted to think about how he might insect with a very different space that had been queered at one point, which was love island, in particular a contestant who left following the only queer coupling up so far on the series.  The two characters are reference points which feel rooted in real life, from where I wanted to imagine, how their lives might intersect and what this might say about grief, longing and loss.

I worked with performers working in the drag scene and with movers/dancers/actors at CSM and beyond. Much of the work in groups fed off choreographic practice based off contact improv and was devised in sections. Ray led much of the camera work through the devising process, we primarily used handheld cameras working with the jolty ‘POV’ effect this produced.

I long for the project to be DIY and gritty, to communicate the richness and painfulness in experiencing death firsthand, and to struggle with the slipperiness of when people are ‘gone’ or ‘disappear.’ I also wanted to play with stretching of time, with the events being tilted and incoherent, technically the entire cast is already dead, but death is in constant negotiation.

Final work

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Drag Queen Visitation

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love island

Research and process

Trialing 16mm for dream/moonscape

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The concept of this film was to make a piece with no dialogue using visual storytelling to depict how queerness and grief might intersect in unusual ways. It was born out of a piece I wrote and shared after learning about the death of a transmasculine sex worker, with a...

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Being Human

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Gender

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Realities

Story & Myth

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Drag

Dance

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# Links

## Official page
- https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/630695/cover

## External
- https://www.instagram.com/louie.gt
- https://louiethornton.squarespace.com/config/
- https://portfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/28105947/research-and-development-pdf-1.pdf
- https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F630695%2Fcover&text=Apollo
- https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F630695%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F05%2F28104609%2Flead-image-1.jpg&description=Apollo