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Taking as its starting point Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's desire to duplicate and capture 'liveness', File under Sacred Music takes an infamous video documenting a live performance by The Cramps for the patients at Napa Mental Institute, California, on 13th June 1978 as the original source to remake. Captured on blurred and grainy black and white film, this unique social document has been swapping hands at record fairs and via the internet since the early eighties. Forsyth and Pollard began by re-enacting that legendary performance in order to film it and remake the rarely seen video document. During a six month period of preparation and research, Forsyth and Pollard set about sourcing the right people to work with. The Institue of Contemporary Arts were first to offer support - providing the ideal space to rebuild and restage the performance. Next came Shooting Live Artists, an initiative funded by Arts Council England and the BBC. Click here to watch a 3 minute excerpt
The band came together around the core of Holly Golightly, a legendary solo artist as well as a founder member of Thee Headcoatees, as guitarist Poison Ivy. Holly was joined by Bruce Brand, a key figure in the Medway scene, as guitarist Bryan Gregory and John Gibbs from The Wildebeests and Holly's current band as drummer Nick Knox. Fronting this formidable group of musicians with his own explosive presence and mesmeric performance was Alfonso Pinto from The Parkinsons. Alongside putting together a band, Forsyth and Pollard engaged in ongoing discussions with members of Core Arts and Mad Pride, who were invited to attend the performance and filming, which was staged on a specially constructed set in the ICA Theatre on 3rd March 2003.
The resulting footage was edited and degraded to meticulously re-create the content, spirit and damaged aesthetic of the original video tape Forsyth and Pollard had purchased on eBay. At a time when media technology has encroached on the live event to a point where few feel live at all, this project pushes beyond any simple re-presentation of a significant cultural moment to project an alternate testament of reality that examines 'liveness' beyond the limitations of needing to 'be there'.
File under Sacred Music marks a significant and ground-breaking development in Forsyth and Pollard's practice and addresses one of the most important questions facing all kinds of performance today: what is the status of the 'live' and the 'real' in a culture now obsessed with simulation and dominated by mass media and mediation? Click here to watch a 3 minute excerpt
After various rejected attempts at digital post-production, together with their editor Robin Mahoney, Forsyth and Pollard decided to explore more 'tactile' strategies for degrading the footage. Several days were spent re-filming from dusty television screens, borrowing ancient VCR machines and outputting to second-hand VHS video tapes that were then scratched and physically damaged by hand before being redigitised and compiled into a final edit.
The Audience: Shuntel Adams, W. Auchaybur, Alex B, Ian Ballard, Simon Ballard, Jodie Banaszkiewicz, Juliet Baptiste, Ivan Best, Tunde Busari, Big Steve, Jo Cadman, Charlie Chadwick, S. Champion, Karen Clarke, Stewart Cliff, Melanie Clifford, David Craig, Peter Cridland, Simon Crimp, Laura Cronin, Mark Davis, Gordon Dawson, Robert Dellar, Jodun Dunsheath, Steve Farrant, Paul Feely, Alfonso Martin Fernandez, Stuart Flory, Andrew Gibbs, Michael Hill, Tim Hogan, Alan Hush, Dominic Jarmain, Heather Jones, Justin Knopwood, Tony Loosley, James MacDougall, Kevin Martin, Tom McCarthy, Charlotte McLachlan, Richard Middleton, Gary Molloy, Paul Monks, Claire Morales, Gloria Nieto, Claire Norman, Mark Pickerel, Tina Pinder, Ann Pitkin, Nanci Sarrouf, C. Scanlon, Gini Simpson, Tahir Suleyman, Russell Thorpe, Victor Torpedo, Everett True, Mary Vallely, Mark Waugh, Ian White, Joe Wilson, Alison Wonderland
The crew: Lighting & Cameras - Stuart Roweth
The Songs and Songwriters: "Mystery Plane" Interior/Rorschach All songs used with the kind permission of the publishers Click here to watch a 3 minute excerpt More production stills - page 1 | page 2
More Images - page 1 | page 2
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