In these days of neoliberal commodification where erstwhile commons and public provision have been captured for private profit like some kind of latter day Enclosures Act it is encouraging that there are still events and activities that are a contribution to the common good, free to access and open to all. I managed to get down to London for a couple on March 20th.
‘Torn Edges’, was organised by Russ Bestley and hosted by the London College of Communication, an afternoon and early evening conference focused on the ‘relationship between punk, art and design history’ with some extremely cool speakers.
About a week before going down another event popped up on my Facebook feed for the same day, ‘Conspiracies’, involving Chris Cutler, Yumi Hara and Guy Harries. It seemed to be an improvisational performance over lunch time at the University of East London near Stratford! As a big Henry Cow fan I was pretty sure I could fit a performance involving Chris Cutler into my day!
So, I found my way to UEL looking forward to finding out what ‘Conspiracies’ is/was. On the door was a handwritten sign, ‘Conspiracies, BA Music, Performance and Production’. Inside Chris Cutler, Yumi Hara and Guy Harries plus seven students on an array of keyboards, guitar, 2 drum kits, a glockenspiel, flute, percussion and vocals started playing an approximately 40 minute piece with multiple changes of direction, tempo changes and, I guess, key changes. The nearest comparison would be prog rock! Like listening to an early rehearsal of ‘Supper's Ready’, complete with weirdness.
There was obviously some underlying structure and plan to it that I hadn’t quite worked out from the conversations going on around me but here, as far as I understand, is what was going on!
The students are allocated, by lottery, specific minutes within the forty that they are allowed to play in. These allocated minutes change for every rehearsal and performance. In those minutes the musicians can play whatever they want and ideally their contribution should be a new ‘idea’. However, each musician has a pre-arranged ‘conspiracy’ with several other musicians, pre-arranged material, and the lead conspirator can bring that pre-arranged material into play when and if they want within their allotted minutes.
However, in minutes 22 to 26 all the musicians play musical phrases every so many seconds.
In minutes 33 and 34 everyone plays a continuous drone note of their choice.
In minutes 35 and 36 the musicians take up separate steady rhythmic beats, all trying not to converge on the same rhythm as anyone else.
The last three or four minutes are a time of responding to the conductor who will bring the various musicians in and out, when they rejoin after a three second rest they repeat the last phrase they played before they dropped out with three second silences between the repeated phrase.
Apparently 'Conspiracies' was devised by Chris Cutler and first performed at Angelica Festival in Bologna in 2015 and since then it’s been performed every year at UEL. I imagine it pushes the musicians out of their comfort zones into an unpredictable musical landscape of continuities and ruptures. If you get a chance to catch it next year, check it out, it's a completely intriguing performance!
Interview with Chris Cutler here Henry Cow – An Interview With Chris Cutler | Echoes And Dust
Then onto the tube to Elephant and Castle to arrive slightly late at ‘Torn Edges’. The programme comments that ‘ The relationship between punk, art and design history is a relatively new and emerging field within the broader theme of punk scholarship’ part of a ‘much deeper critical analysis of punk music, fashion, politics, philosophy and aesthetics…’
The conference had pulled together some great speakers, all authors, and here is a whistlestop tour of my possibly inaccurate and certainly sketchy notes on the day! Apologies to the speakers for any mistakes.
First up was Marie Arleth Skov on ‘Berlin Calling: the Dark, Dramatic and Dazzling Punk Art Praxis of a Divided City’. Unfortunately I got there late but I’ve written down ‘cornelia schleime, multidisciplinary artist who mixed genres, similarities with linder sterling’.
Interview with Marie Arleth Skov here Marie Arleth Skov | Echoes And Dust
Gavin Butt spoke on ‘From Pork to Punk: Towards a cartography of the ‘cross-over’’. I’ve got ‘wayne county, cross over between underground and popular culture, ‘ridiculous’ theatre and rock music in the 70s, hair, oh calcutta, pork, warhol, cherry vanilla and gender politics’.
Interview with Gavin Butt here No Machos Or Pop Stars: When The Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk. Interview with Gavin Butt. | Echoes And Dust
Rebecca Binns was up next with ‘Shouting Mortality as I Drown: The Intersection of Anne Bean’s Performance with Punk and Feminist Practice in the 1970s’. My notes were ‘anne bean, joseph beuys, fluxus, social sculpture, butler’s wharf art/squat area, migrated into punk, flow was both ways, anne bean resisted labelling, worked between subcultures, meat dress before lady gaga’. I should have also written ‘moody and the menstuators’.
Ana Raposo spoke on ‘Which Side Are You On? The Visual Representation of Politics in Punk and Post-Punk’. Ana’s presentation was on punk as a politically contested space, the appropriation and deployment of fascist imagery and symbols within punk and oi, RAR and anti-facism.
Ian Trowell was up next with an intriguing talk entitled, ‘Anarchy in the UK’, ‘Black Square’ and Pop Nihilism: Exploring the Links between punk, Nihilism, Suprematism and Situationism’. My notes say, ‘malevich, black square, sex pistols anarchy cover, anti flag, anarchism’s black flag, malevich white on white, beatle’s white album, rauschenberg’.
Simon Strange gave a presentation on ‘Blank Canvas: why did UK art schools produce such a stream of impactful popular musicians?’ I did a review of Simon’s book when it came out so I didn't really make any notes but check out the review of his excellent book on Echoes and Dust Simon Strange – Blank Canvas: Art School Creativity From Punk To New Wave | Echoes And Dust
Last up was Maria Elena Buszek on ‘Identity is the Crisis: Punk Feminisms’. My notes are a bit brief for such an important topic, just ‘slits, alex michon, linder sterling, hannah hoch’s collages’. (Sorry, I was a bit tired by then!)
As you can see my note taking needs a bit of working on (apologies to speakers) but there are names and ideas in there worth following up. ‘Torn Edges’ was excellent, the speakers contextualising and joining dots between punk art, punk artists and wider art and design history. Despite its Year Zero claims early punk and post-punk artists, many of whom had been through art college, drew on historical art resources in their practice. This conference explored some of those connections, alerting me, at least, to artists I had previously been unaware of.
What to call this review? I decided on ‘In Praise of Learning’ after the Henry Cow album and because of the effect and role that some music, art, artists and musicians can have as they act as portals, challenging, make the familiar unfamiliar, reconfiguring our thinking, stretching us and showing us new things. Yesterday was one of those experiences.
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