PRESS RELEASE Mark Fisher and Justin Barton
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PRESS RELEASE Mark Fisher and Justin Barton: On Vanishing Land 6 February–30 March 2013 Opening Hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 12–6pm Press Breakfast with the artists: Tuesday 5 February, 9.30–11am Preview: Tuesday 5 February, 6.30–8.30pm Performances by John Foxx and Raime: Thursday 7 March, 7pm (see www.theshowroom.org for information and booking) Discussion with Mark Fisher, Justin Barton, The Otolith Collective, John Foxx, Frances Morgan, Elizabeth Walling (Gazelle Twin): Saturday 16 March, 3pm (free, no booking required) The Otolith Collective and The Showroom present On Vanishing Land, a new work by British sound artists and theorists Mark Fisher and Justin Barton. On Vanishing Land (2013, 45m) is a magisterial audio-essay that evokes a walk undertaken by the artists along the Suffolk coastline in 2005, from Felixstowe container port to the Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo. Fisher and Barton have conjured a new form of sonic fiction from the dreamings, gleamings and prefigurations that pervade the Suffolk coast. The work includes commissions from digital musicians, interviews and the reflections of the artists. Inspired by the cumulative force of the Eerie that animates this landscape, On Vanishing Land pursues affinities between the modernist reinvention of the ghost story in M.R. James’ Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad (1904) and the atmospheric engineering of Brian Eno’s album On Land (1982). “Themes of incursion - by unnameable forces, geological sentience or temporal anomaly - recur throughout.” (Kodwo Eshun, The Otolith Collective, Curator, On Vanishing Land) On Vanishing Land integrates new compositions by digital musicians Baron Mordant, Dolly Dolly, Ekoplekz, Farmers of Vega, Gazelle Twin, John Foxx, Pete Wiseman, Raime and Skjolbrot. For the installation at The Showroom it will be accompanied by an untitled sequence of a wide range of visual references, produced in collaboration with artist Andy Sharp (English Heretic). Events accompanying the exhibition include a performance on 7 March by John Foxx and Raime of compositions from the project. On 16 March, Fisher and Barton, with The Otolith Collective, John Foxx, Frances Morgan (Deputy Editor, The Wire) and Elizabeth Walling (Gazelle Twin), will explore the contemporary cultural fascination with the illogics of the Eerie. Finally, a conversation at the Boathouse café on the River Deben, Suffolk between the artists and Andy Sharp (English Heretic) will discuss the reimagining of MR James’ ghost stories by television directors Jonathan Miller and Lawrence Gordon Clark since the late 1960s. On Vanishing Land was jointly commissioned, produced and curated by The Otolith Collective and The Showroom. Notes for Editors - Mark Fisher (b.1968) has worked with sound since the mid 1990s as a founding member of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at Warwick University. He is the author of the influential Capitalist Realism (Zer0, 2009) and the forthcoming Ghosts of my Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (Zer0, 2013). Since 2004, he has written the celebrated blog k-punk and is a regular contributor to publications including The Wire and Film Quarterly. He lectures in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths and is a Commissioning Editor for Zer0 books. - Justin Barton (b.1962) is a writer, philosopher and sound artist who recently completed his first novel The Corridor. - The Showroom is a space for contemporary art that is focused on a collaborative and process-driven approach to production; be that artwork, exhibitions, discussions, publications, knowledge and relationships. For thirty years, The Showroom has invested in artists to make their first solo show in London, including Jim Lambie, Eva Rothschild, Mona Hatoum, Simon Starling, Claire Barclay, Rebecca Warren, Can Altay and Emily Wardill. www.theshowroom.org - The Otolith Collective was founded in 2002 by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (b.1967). The Collective integrates film and video making with the production of public platforms for close readings of experiments in sound and image. Kodwo Eshun lectures in Aural and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths. He is the author of Rock My Religion (The MIT Press/Afterall, 2012). www.otolithgroup.org - Andy Sharp (b.1968) runs English Heretic, an organisation dedicated to the commemoration of tragic figures and the exploration of occult landscapes. Since 2003, English Heretic has released numerous records including Plan for the Kidnap of Princess Anne (2011) and two volumes of Wyrd Tales: A New English Heretic Library Reader in 2007 and 2011. - Dolly Dolly (b.1970) is an artist, musician and apiarist who lives and works in Berkshire. His debut album Antimacassar is out this year on Exotic Pylon Records. - Farmers of Vega (b.1975) is the production name of musician Aled Rees whose music explores the intersection between drone, rhythm and the Eerie. Rees previously contributed music to londonunderlondon (2005). - John Foxx (b.1947) Vocalist, songwriter, musician and writer John Foxx founded and designed Ultravox!, one of the most influential groups of the post-punk era. His first solo album, Metamatic (1980), is a landmark in British electronic music. His collaborations with musician Harold Budd on the albums Translucence and Drift Music (2003) were integral to the affective tone of londonunderlondon. Since 2011, Foxx has collaborated with musician Benge Edwards as John Foxx and The Maths. Evidence, their most recent album, was released in 2012. - Gazelle Twin (b.1981) is the production name of artist, musician and composer Elizabeth Walling. Her first album, The Entire City (Anti-Ghost Moon Ray), was released in 2011. Gazelle Twin’s most recent release is the EP Mammal (Sugarcane Recordings (2013). - Baron Mordant (b.1966) is founder of Mordant Music which functions as an artist name and as a record label. Mordant Music’s records include Dead Air (2006), SymptoMs(2009) and MisinforMation (2010), his acclaimed DVD of new soundtracks recorded for Central Office of Information films of the 1970s and 1980s released by the British Film Institute. - Ekoplekz (b.1969). The producer Nick Edwards, otherwise known as Ekoplekz, combines radiophonics, industrial noise and disintegrated dub with a commitment to primitive hardware and lo-fi cassette recording. Edwards has released records on the labels Punch Drunk, Mordant Music and Public Information. His most recent album was released under his own name on Editions Mego in 2012. - Raime are Joe Andrews (b.1981) and Tom Halstead (b.1980), one of the influential duos in contemporary electronic music. Their highly acclaimed debut album, Quarter Turns Over A Living Line, was released on the label Blackest Ever Black in 2012. - Skjolbrot (b.1981) Skjolbrot’s recordings meld documentary material with analogue and digital synthesis. His first release Maersk (2010) was informed by dub, the landscapes of industrial infrastructure and Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project. His new record is forthcoming in 2013. - Pete Wiseman (b.1975) is an improvising musician and visual artist. His album swim will be released in February on [RHP] CDRs. - Production support from Arts Council England and PRS for Music Foundation. Exhibition support from The Showroom Supporters. Event support from Markson Pianos and Bawdsey Radar. For further information and high-resolution images, please contact Rachel Cass: [email protected] or 020 7724 4300 .