Gallery stills

The Sparky Show, New York City

Schroeder Romero / Winkleman Gallery Project Space
637 West 27th Street (btw 11th and 12th Ave) NYC
May 15-June 28, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 15, 6-8 pm


David B. Abbott / Derrick Adams / Alex Aleixo / Meredith Allen / Stephen Andrews / Marina Ancona / Dominick Avellino / Thomas Bellof / Barton Lidice Benes / Kermit Berg / Dennis Bergevin / Vanessa Boer / Elizabeth Bonaventura / Joseph Brajcki / AA Bronson / Mary Button / Mark Carter / Janice Caswell / Niccolo Cataldi / Cat Celebrezze / Mark Chamberlain / Vincent Cianni / Chris Clary / Jon Coffelt / Albert Crudo / Megan Cump / Erika deVries / Marta Dell’Angelo / Danielle Dimston / William Donovan / Angela Dufresne / Neil Farber / Rachel Farmer / Sarah Farsad / John Findysz / Teresa Fogard / Martin Freeman / Milton Garcia-Ninja / Joy Garnett / Paul LeRoy Gehres / Laura Gilbert / Eric Ginsburg / Jeffrey Graul / Max Greenberg / Magalie Guerin / Kim Hanson / Jan Harrison / Michael Harwood / Alex Hetherington / David Humphrey / Derek Jackson / James Jaxxa / David King / Scooter LaForge / Aldo Lanzini / Lou Laurita / Jennifer Lehe / Marc Lepson / Serge J-F. Levy / Tim Lonergan / Gina Lovoi / Preston McGovern / Reyez Melendez / Toma Miller / Joe Monroe / Michael Muller / Stefanie Nagorka / Jeanine Oleson / Laura Sue Phillips / Drew Pisarra / Catya Plate / Amy Jean Porter / William Powhida / Carol Radsprecher / Richard Renaldi / Eric Rhein / Daniel Roberts / Nelson Santos / Joel Seah / Emily Severance / Frank Sheehan / Ethan Shoshan / Oren Slor / Clifford Smith / Thomas Somervile / Clare Stein / Stanley Stellar / Sur Rodney (Sur) / JD Talasek / Sam Tan / Steed Taylor / Tom Teebe / George Towne / Alexander Vasiljev / Alberto Velasco / Glenn Walls / Barbara Weissberger / Michael Werner / Robin Willis / Noel Wynn / Rob Wynne

Exclusive, film programme for High Flats Residents, during Big In Falkirk

The installation

This installation, Meddle with the Devil, combines and synchronizes materials that attempt to simulate memory loss and fake memory syndrome employing a series of graphics, The New York Times newspaper logo, a large-scale mirror, black-out curtains and performance materials, as both live re-enactments and on video, which also explore and stage exaggerated public behaviours, personal relationships to the press and exchanges based on wealth and desire. These works make reference to and synchronize an array of materials, including Mike Kelley’s works Memory Ware and Day is Done, the video work of Catherine Sullivan, House/Lights by The Wooster Group, The Idiots by Lars von Trier, The Tenant by Roman Polanski, email scams, hazing rituals, newspapers quotations, marbled paper, explosions and biker gangs. It also references the town motto: Better Meddle with the Devil than the Bairns o’ Falkirk and an ongoing body of research into memory stimulated by working at the House and the High Rises, principally archives, recollections, mementos, etc.

For this installation I have produced a new film: Falkirk Voodoo King Kenny, with email scam and dog jokes (2008). The basis of this film is personal and public transactions, primarily the exchange of money, the exchange of ideas, news, power etc. It uses a scenario from a re-enactment of House/Lights, an experimental theatre work by The Wooster Group, the texts for this work commingles Gertrude Stein’s libretto Dr Faustus Lights the Lights and Joseph Mawra’s film Olga’s House of Shame. In Stein’s text Dr Faustus sells his soul for the power to create electric light while in Olga’s House of Shame, a drug and narcotics ring kidnap a jewel thief, Elaine, to bring her into alliance with the gang’s leader Olga. The second part of the film sees the text from two email scams, suggesting the accumulation of massive wealth from bank accounts from deceased millionaires, which are in fact attempts to steal the identity of anyone who falls for the con, as well as the contents of their bank accounts. The two fictional authors of the emails, Ken Morgan and Emma Bambara appear as absurd characters in a performance to camera filmed at The Park Gallery, 18 April 2008, with the photographer Jennifer Beaton. (Further forms of transactions appear as FOR SALE or FOR RENT signs). The characters also allude to King Kenny and George Washington, two identities from Falkirk’s past. These two men displayed extreme forms of public behaviour based primarily on religious zealousness, mental health issues and financial hardship, they appear in momentary recreations on screen based on a system of absurd interpretations. The work also includes the personality of Jayson Blair, a New York Times journalist who was forced to resign from the paper when it was discovered his news stories were either plagiarized or fabricated, his scandal is used in the film to develop a relationship to his imagination, his false memory syndrome, here re-enacted as a display of the psychosis but not the (traumatic) false event, since the ‘original’ events never took place or were radically different from their ‘public’ presentation. Meanwhile this form also extends my interest in interpretation of events and their siphoning, deterioration and corruption through memory and its imperfections.

The “Bairn o Falkirk” is seen in an image of a female child taken from a Mike Kelley work, she mimics my performance material (make-up etc) as well as displaying a premonition of aging. She also alludes to a character in House/Lights and Dr Faustus Lights the Lights, Marguerita Ida and Helena Annabel, a female split identity who is created by the Devil to deceive Dr Faustus and to the Devil’s promise in the text to reverse time, allowing the old to become young.

An artist edition has been made for the show, which appears in the form of a playing card: one side is the Queen of Spades, the other the Ace of Spades. The card shows some of the absurd characters in the film and the other is a specially-commissioned knitted felt drawing by Lorna Shields which shows the word Heroin in display cases, another form in the show referencing the psychotic, hallucinations, desires, addictions, downfalls. (The felt is my Joseph Beuys moment in the work, we all have them.)

Lars von Trier’s work The Idiots appears as a connection to the email scam as well as the presentation of faked behaviours, the film sees a commune of individuals pretending to be mentally disabled in order to challenge social acceptance and tolerance of the spectrum of modes of public behaviour.

The installation is accompanied by references to gold, a colour and material which appears frequently in Callendar House. This explores further notions of wealth, transactions and value. The work is supplemented by a number of old jokes about dogs, the kind of thing you’ve heard before, a set-up-joke-set-up-punch-line scenario again looking at constructing fictional mental narratives and their surreal outcomes. It also relates to the character of a dog in House/Lights whose only line is “thank you” (a receptive, accepted/acceptable transaction) and the policy of barring dogs in the high rises (a prohibited, unaccepted transaction).

The final character in the film is Roman Polanski (no stranger to scandal himself and still wanted as a fugitive from justice by the US authorities) from the motion picture The Tenant, here his male identity assumes a female one (the previous tenant who died in the apartment) as his mental status deteriorates, mirroring her decline (and the fugitive status of criminals Olga and Elaine). This connects the work again to my live performance of House/Lights which sees, through the use of computer and sound technology, my voice delivered in a feminized pitch. This completes a cycle of traumas and scandals whether real or imagined that commingle through this project.

Of course I also think there is something interesting about gender in all of this.

Film, reel and security cameras

Falkirk Voodoo King Kenny, with email scam and dog jokes, 17 minutes 14 seconds, silent

The characters in the film:
Jayson Blair, journalist
King Kenny, deceased Falkirk resident
George Washington, deceased Falkirk resident
The Banker, Ken Morgan
Director of Private Accounts, Emma Bambara
The Tenant, Roman Polanski
Elaine
Olga

(Jayson Blair is a journalist who was forced to resign from the New York Times in May 2003, after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories.)

I’ll be adding more on this soon. I am putting together the reel today and shot some slides from Isabel’s collection, which I will transfer to video and add in Dan Mailer’s anniversary video. And then the VHS tapes. Then we’ll place in the artists’ video. I’ll upload the full program this week; we had an idea to put the reel in the community room too and are investigating piggy-backing the reel onto the security channel that runs through the apartments. Janie discovered the security door system is viewable on the residents’ TVs so they can see who is visiting. We are looking to see if there is a back-up channel that we can use, so the reel might appear through this, so it becomes a private TV station. I don’t know yet if we can pull this off.

As I was filming Isabel’s collection one of the slides fell into the mechanism and projected this interesting shot, which I’ve added here, accompanied by a still from the film for Meddle…

By the way Isabel’s collection is great; it’s a whole lifetime in there, someone in her family was a prolific photographer. I think it was her husband.

Untitled (sexyback, foley artist), (2008) my film about Justin Timberlake, silver foil, Olga’s House of Shame and a whole load of hellish noises is screening in Brazil in August, it’s at File 2008.

The reel for High Rise Cinema, I’ve added San Francisco-based Scottish artist Anne Colvin’s piece Cracked Actor (2006) as a connection to the first edition of The Village Voice magazine and to relate its title to the performances in my film. It’s also a great rock and roll moment, and will have resonance with the music event at BiF.

The final program for the reel will be here shortly.

Photoshoot/performance with Jennifer Beaton

Photoshoot from performance at The Park Gallery 4/17/2008. The security CCTV cameras came down. This is a Falkirk Voodoo scenario, meddle with the devil, invocation of George Washington and King Kenny

The Tenant

Artist in residence/Roman Polanski The Tenant

a dog goes into a bar...

Also, we received word that a-n magazine are using the image for Meddle with the Devil for their center spread. or something like that. May 2008

Alchemy

Video stills and Laura Cameron Lewis' biog

Laura Cameron Lewis is an actor, director, writer, producer and musician who is probably best known for her work with the theatre collective Highway Diner, who won a Fringe First in 2004 for Works of Temporary Solace, were nominated as Best Ensemble in the Critics Awards for Theatre Scotland the following year and recently worked with the National Theatre of Scotland. She has also worked as a producer for Communicado since 2005, and as artistic director of the theatre company Laboratorium 33, whose show Dig For Fire was widely acclaimed by critics.
‘A terrific erotic and emotional intensity by Laura Cameron Lewis… The commitment is often breathtaking.’ Joyce McMillan, Scotsman, reviewing Dig For Fire, 2005.

Erotic indeed... recent performance credits include appearing in her underpants as the lead vocalist and guitarist in her band, Laura Lewis and the Tea Dance Orchestra at Edinburgh's Neue Liebe art cabaret, collaborating with visual artist Kirsty Whiten on her 'Trophy Confidence' film and also on her infamous 'Feral Lingerie Model' project which are both currently appearing in Stolenspace Gallery London. Other collaborations include appearances, films and art projects with the Scottish electro maestros, Swimmer One. Laura also works sometimes as a lecturer, teacher and arts journalist. She likes building sites at night.

Performance shots

House/Lights with Laura, post BOMB scare

The Village Voice Editorial group visit the Callendar House Archive

The Village Voice group meets every Tuesday afternoon (2pm -4pm in Callendar House Education Room) with a regular and expanding group of interested attendees. Mostly female, strangely enough, and consisting of interesting characters with stories to tell once you scratch the surface. This week I started taking photo portraits of the participants in their domestic settings, which has added a whole new level to my understanding of the dynamics of the group. Another instance of “the more you give, the more you get back”.

This week we collectively visited the Callendar House Archive where Jean, the Archive Assistant outlined to the group the range of documents, ledgers and information that can be accessed in the Archive. It was good to be reminded of the wealth of historical information there… and the group certainly seemed interested. I was trying to emphasise to them that this session was really just an ice breaker and that it was a starting point if any of them wanted to return to look up or research things at a later date. It was lovely to see Lottie enthralled, looking through one of the log books for Bainsford School, as she read about activities of her former teachers. A genuine trip down memory lane provided through the neat handwriting, wrapped up in a leather bound volume, unwittingly recorded through the conscientious note-keeping of her Head teacher, circa 1935. Priceless ! ....... the best things in life are indeed free.... unexpected, unrehearsed and unpremeditated....

Method Acting King Kenny George Washington

Updated information

Alex Hetherington’s installation combines and synchronizes materials that simulate personal memory loss and fake memory syndrome employing a series of graphics, The New York Times newspaper logo, a large-scale mirror, black out curtains and performance materials, as both live re-enactments and on video, looking at exaggerated public behaviors as a reference to King Kenny* and George Washington**, personal relationships and dialogs with/to the press and the notion of events and our connection with them based on personal, local, national and international levels. These works make reference to and synchronize an array of materials, including Mike Kelley’s works Memory Ware and Day is Done, the video work of Catherine Sullivan, House/Lights by The Wooster Group, The Idiots by Lars von Trier, email scams, hazing rituals, newspapers quotations, marbled paper, explosions and biker gangs…


*King Kenny was a homeless, mentally-ill man from Falkirk who used to write his opinions on the press/media/local/national/international events using chalk and writing his statements on the streets. Everyone also points out his remarkably beautiful handwriting. He also used to busk playing a banjo at the lines for the cinema and theater. According to the group he died of some kind of poisoning. More on this soon.

**George Washington was an equally famous character in Falkirk (who apparently at one point studied Divinity). He stated that only Falkirk Technical School pupils who would be saved on the day of redemption. More on this soon, if we can find more materials on these individuals.

More print

Meddle with the Devil presents an installation from work and research developed during the first five months of a year-long residency at Callendar House, Callendar Park in Falkirk by artists Alex Hetherington and Janie Nicoll. This residency is supported by partners Scottish Arts Council and Falkirk Council.

Alex Hetherington’s installation combines and synchronizes materials that simulate personal memory loss and fake memory syndrome employing a series of graphics, the New York Times newspaper logo, a large-scale, mirror, black out curtains and performance materials, as both live re-enactments and on video, looking at extreme public behaviours, personal relationships to the press and the notion of events based on a personal, local, national and international levels. These works make reference to and synchronize an array of materials, including Mike Kelley’s works Memory Ware and Day is Done, the video work of Catherine Sullivan, House/Lights by The Wooster Group, email scams, hazing rituals, newspapers quotations, marbled paper, explosions and biker gangs.

Janie Nicoll’s work often takes the form of site-specific installation, using digital photography to fill and work with a space rather than be confined and restricted by the forms of regular photography. These sometimes consist of text-based works, that reference popular culture, such as lines from songs, that allow a variety of interpretations, often ambiguous, or contentious, thereby creating an ironic dialogue with the viewer. Her installation at the gallery will combine digital photography, a large sculpture of a gold ring and a large gold wall installation; these works explore memory, value, superstition and the notions of trust and what is allowable and expected within a given situation.

Images
Alex Hetherington and Janie Nicoll Meddle with the Devil

Meddle Poster

FoolforaPrettyFaceTutVuVuJimColquhounHouseLights