Jeanne of the Dark is an exploration of the image of the vamp in the multimedia context of music, lighting, and silent film. Rather than tell a story, co-composers Marko Ciciliani and Terre Thaemlitz have created an unconventional artwork that derives its imagery and its sound world from a range of reference points transgressing stylistic and cultural boundaries, from vampire movies to eroticism, from heavy metal to cannibalism. The stereotype of the vamp “ the seductive but dangerous woman, man-eater, femme fatale, inseparable from the dualistic male view of the female as virgin/whore “ is teased out and recontextualised, and a consuming process of attraction and repulsion is set in motion for the listener/viewer. The work is structured in four large panels, the first three composed by Ciciliani for his ensemble Bakin Zub, connected by musical and filmic interludes composed by Thaemlitz.
