We want to pause for a moment, and build a big, black monument to the Idiot Box in the corner.
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
For their fourth exhibition at Kate MacGarry, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard curated a TV wall of short films, which have inspired their practice since they started working together at Goldsmiths in 1992. The exhibition includes their very first film and self-portrait, Chain Smoker Tap Dancer. As a new double-act at art college, they wanted to bring something of their lives before they met in front of the camera. ‘At the time it was a deliberately stupid idea, an idiotic gesture’ say Forsyth and Pollard, ‘but seeing it again now, we’re surprised by how much it looks like ‘art’.’
The films included in the exhibition ranged from stop animations to static single takes, performances to found footage. Some reference the noise and nature of television, others simply invite enquiry. All of them however, resonate in today’s contemporary YouTube-obsessed culture. They are short, pithy and hard-hitting and are reminders to Forsyth and Pollard of why they first picked up a video camera.
