Revolutions 10– 13 Vivid Projects 06– 22 June
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Curated by Yasmeen Baig-Clifford Programme Manager - Laura Coult Programme Intern - Timothy Pratt Design by Keith Dodds Audio restoration for Richard Heslop produced by Darren Joyce for Vivid Projects. With special thanks to: Holly Aylett, Hermione Harris and Andy Robson (In the Spirit of Marc Karlin), Matt Foster, Dave Haslam, Nat Higginbottom (Rebel Uncut), Richard Heslop, Jock (Evolve Productions), Darren Joyce, Paul Long and Jez Collins (Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research), James Mackay, Alexandre Parre, Matt Moore. VIVID PROJECTS E: [email protected] 16 MINERVA WORKS WWW.VIVIDPROJECTS.ORG.UK 158 FAZELEY STREET BIRMINGHAM B5 5RS REVOLUTIONS 10 –13 VIVID PROJECTS Marc Karlin Archive 06 – 22 JUNE REVOLUTIONS 10 –13 EXHIBITION PROGRAMME WEEK 1: THU 06 – SAT 08 JUNE, A CERTAIN 12 – 5PM DAILY RICHARD HESLOP ‘It works in a couple of ways,’ revealed Heslop. ‘One SENSIBILITY: is the movement of the films in rhythm with the Artist and film-maker Heslop began his career music, and the other is the specific content of each FILMS FROM VIVID PROJECTS making live multi-projections for British band 23 piece of film…the video is just about energy and THURSDAY 06 – Skidoo. Heslop has also worked as cinematographer sexual energy, to do with movement and colour.” THE ENGLISH for Derek Jarman, notably on The Last of England SATURDAY 22 JUNE and directed music videos for legendary bands THE CHILD AND THE SAW (1984, 23m) UNDERGROUND OPEN THU – SAT, 12 – 5PM including The Smiths, New Order, Happy Mondays, Richard Heslop graduated from Central St The Cure, and The Shaman. Three films from Martin’s in 1984 and The Child and The Saw was Heslop’s body of work are shown here; showcasing his graduation film, released as a boxed VHS tape the clever manipulation of film speeds which give and made in collaboration with Daniel Landin. This This new exhibition draws together works from shows, and recalls Jarman's first encounter with his images an alternative edge, unique feel and an award-winning debut short feature follows the dark three strikingly independent film makers key to Heslop at a Brixton Academy event organised by alternate perspective of reality. Films include: and surreal journey of a young girl who receives a the radical trajectory of the post-1976 English Genesis P. Orridge, where William Burroughs and giant bandsaw for her ninth birthday. underground movement. Connected by themes of Bryon Gysin delivered readings. From Jarman, we 7 SONGS (1981-82, 1h 36s) left field personal politics, history and nationality, have included two rarely seen early works originated Featuring music and footage of British industrial/ FU GI (1980s, 5m 54s) and marked by an intense visual sensibility, Richard on Super8mm from 1980-82 featuring William post-punk band 23 Skidoo, 7 Songs was released Music video for 23 Skidoo, directed by Heslop when Heslop, Marc Karlin and Derek Jarman developed S.Burroughs, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. on VHS in April 1982, packaged in a plastic bag he was a student at Central St Martins using 8mm work both technically original and aesthetically which also included a boiled sweet, elastoplast, film and found footage. radical. Of further significance is their shared A political film maker, Karlin’s films are however and a condom. Combining live footage of the band background in collective and non-hierarchical suffused with a poetic tone, reflecting on images, with found footage and random imagery, including working methods, and experimentation with video the media and their relationship with memory and ‘flicking super speed images’1 of the band’s arrest for image manipulation and found material. human subjectivity. Karlin explored memory over grafitti-ing the Berlin wall, the film adopts William S. and over; specifically the frailty of memory, the Burroughs’ cut-n-paste techniques to bring together The early works of Heslop and Jarman are role of recall, and the extent to which image can 8mm, VHS, U-Matic and found footage in what inextricably linked by a cutup aesthetic. Heslop's represent actuality. The films presented here form Heslop described as an “intuitive” editing process. striking films for the industrial post-punk group the question bridge between the failure of the Left 23 Skidoo (a phrase derived from 19th century and the emergence of Thatcherism. American slang translating loosely as 'move it' or 'cut and run', and used by William S.Burroughs, for instance) mediate the music, building a dense wall of sound and visual rhythms. For this exhibition, we are delighted to present Heslop's '7 Songs', a series of films made for the seminal 1982 23 Skidoo album of the same name, produced by Genesis P.Orridge, Peter Christopherson and Ken Thomas. With a restored audio track produced by sound artist Darren Joyce of doTb/Modified Toy Orchestra, the film can be experienced as originally intended. Dense rhythms, metallic noise and fluid percusssion invokes 23 Skidoo’s menacing live 1 Adam Sweeting, Melody Maker WEEK 2: THU 13 – SAT 15 JUNE, WEEK 3: THU 20 – SAT 22 JUNE, 12 – 5PM DAILY 12 – 5PM DAILY DEREK JARMAN ‘TG: PSYCHIC RALLY IN HEAVEN’ (1981) courtesy and © LUMA Foundation Innovative, esteemed and controversial, Derek Experimental film of the group ‘Throbbing Gristle’ Jarman (1942 - 1994) produced works which were in concert on 23 December 1980, accompanied by technically original, aesthetically radical and which three tracks from their ‘2nd Annual Report’ album. constitute an astonishing personal and public record We are also pleased to present a screening of ‘The of England in the last quarter of the 20th century. Last of England’ (1987), a poetic depiction of what Jarman felt was the loss of traditional English ‘PIRATE TAPE: culture in the 1980s. Further details below. A PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS’ (1983) courtesy and © LUMA Foundation Short film featuring William Burroughs in London cut to a loop of his voice with sound by Psychic TV (Genesis P-Orridge, Peter Christopherson (COIL), Geff Rushton, (COIL), Alex Fergusson (Alternative TV), John Gosling (Zos Kia) and Paula P-Orridge). MARC KARLIN BETWEEN TIMES (1993, 50m) Between Times looks at the fate of the British Left Described as one of the most significant unknown in the wake of Thatcherism. Over a cup of tea, A, film-makers working in Britain during the past three the socialist, and Z, the post-modernist, investigate decades, Karlin (1943 – 1999) was a central figure what now constitutes the men and women, in the radical avant-garde of the 1970s and made individuals or collectives, who saw themselves a major contribution to the shaping of Channel 4. as being the agency of change, i.e. until then the Newly digitised works are shown, alongside a one- working class. The film reveals the tension that off screening of Night Cleaners on Saturday 15 existed between the ‘working class’ and the ‘political June at 2pm. class’ in the early 1990s after a decade of shifting class perceptions and individual aspirations. FOR MEMORY (1982, 1h 44m) For Memory is a contemplation on cultural From his notebooks at the time Karlin writes, ‘the amnesia. The film opens with an emotional interview subjects feel ill at ease in the political class’ tightly with the members of the British Army Film Unit constructed corset or straight-jacket. Political recalling the images they recorded after the language and culture does not correspond to the liberation of the Belsen Concentration Camp. Karlin subject’s intimate and intuitive understanding of wrote For Memory as a reaction to Holocaust, itself and its circumstances’. Hollywood’s serialisation of the genocide. He asks: how could a documentary photograph die so soon Additional newly digitised works by Karlin and be taken over by a fiction? will be available on request EVENTS PROGRAMME SAT 15 JUN, 2PM, £3 on the door SAT 23 JUN, 2PM (admission £3 on the door) SCREENING: NIGHTCLEANERS SCREENING: THE LAST OF ENGLAND [dir: Berwick Street Collective, 1972-75] [dir: Derek Jarman, 1987] 90m | B&W, Sound (optical), 16mm, Video | 87m | Colour/ B&W, Sound, 35mm courtesy LUX Courtesy James Mackay and LUMA Foundation A documentary about the campaign to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night A dark and personal meditation on England under and who were being victimized and underpaid. the Thatcher-era of conservatism. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in The Last of England established Jarman as a order to represent the forces at work between the figurehead for those who, in Thatcher’s third term, cleaners, the Cleaner’s Action Group and the unions abhorred her vision and her politics. It was also in - and the complex nature of the campaign itself. the final stages of production when Jarman found The result was an intensely self-reflexive film, which out that he was HIV positive implicated both the filmmakers and the audience in FRI 07 JUNE, 7.30PM, £5 SAT 08 JUN, 2PM, £3 on the door the processes of precarious, invisible labour. “Wrenchingly beautiful... one of the few commanding works of personal cinema DAVE HASLAM: SEARCHING FOR THE YOUNG SCREENING: RADIO ON Nightcleaners is increasingly recognised as a key in the late ‘80s.” - The Village Voice PUNK REBELS [dir: Chris Petit, 1979] work of the 1970s and as an important precursor, Music historian and legendary Hacienda DJ Dave 104m | B&W, Sound | courtesy BFI in both subject matter and form, to current political Haslam explores and celebrates music activity art practice. in Birmingham from 1976 to 1982, drawing on One of the most striking feature debuts in British interviews with Lesley Woods, Kevin Rowland, and cinema. A haunting blend of edgy mystery story and Duran Duran’s John Taylor among others.