Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard

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. 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? 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. For more information visit the project web site at http://www.fileundersacredmusic.com

Made in England was made for Iain and Jane's first live art event of 1998, 'The Kids are Alright', at the ICA in London, which featured a performance by a Who tribute band. The film was born out of the desire to create a support act to 'warm up' the audience. Exited by the idea of Karaoke films without ever having seen one, Iain and Jane set out to make a short film which could function in the same manner as they imagined a Karaoke video might. Having obtained the original master tapes for a recording of Substitute performed by the Who tribute band, a new mix was produced, minus the vocal track. Taking this as the soundtrack, the lyrics of the song were then produced as rolling graphics by young design team 'Pretty, You May Be...', forming one half of the 'split screen' film. Iain and Jane spent a day in London's Carnaby Street shooting footage which centred around Dan Howard-Birt walking the length of the street, cutting a strange presence dressed in authentic period Mod clothing previously used in the filming of Quadrophenia. The resulting film was projected onto the stage backdrop at the event prior to the band's performance, provoking the entire audience to chant along with the on-screen lyrics.

Everybody else is wrong was a major solo exhibition of new work by Iain and Jane in Pavilion, a 2,500 sq ft old arcade on Montreal's high traffic main strip. Everybody else is wrong is a process-led project, produced in Montreal with mass public participation. In the month leading up to the exhibition a flyer, newspaper and magazine campaign targeted the local community. Participants were invited to make a 'mix-tape' for someone they love or have loved (requited or otherwise). The submitted inlay cards for these tapes were collated and displayed throughout the show's duration, alongside a 30 minute single channel video work, Everybody else is wrong, and a series of 13 large poster works. In the week before the exhibition opens Iain and Jane filmed 13 people talking directly to camera about what some of the songs on their tapes mean to them, about the person they made the tape for and about how the music they've selected operates in their relationship. This footage was then be edited on site into a fast-paced dynamic video work, which jumps back and forth between participants, drawing implied relationships, dropping into abstract declarations, confessions and half-baked narratives. All references to the 'act' of making the mix-tape are removed magnifying the words of the participants and their inability to express their intentions and emotions becomes gut-wrenchingly familiar. Pavilion is an ambitous curatorial project initiated by Robin Simpson and Maryse LaRiviere. It is a temporary structure that acts as a nomadic cultural centre. While focusing on contemporary art it also lends a sympathetic ear towards emerging music and other public arts such as fashion. Pavilion is a cross-cultural space that embraces the relationships between street culture, pop-culture and the visual arts. Everybody else is wrong, the video work, was screened in the space throughout the exhibition with seating for visitors. The inlay cards from the 13 film participants were made into large poster prints and exhibited around the space. During the exhibition of Everybody else is wrong several events were organised in the space to attract the community into the space - including performances from emerging Montreal-based bands Wolf Parade, The Arcade Fire and The Hidden Cameras. Each night when the exhibition space closed the front windows of the space became a screen. And, overnight a series of slides of sumitted inlay cards were projected onto a screen in the front window of the space, viewable from one of Montreal's busiest streets. For more information please visit: http://www.iainandjane.com

Walking After Acconci (Redirected Approaches) references a seminal video work made in 1973 by performance artist Vito Acconci. In it, Acconci paces the length of a corridor, talking to an absent ex-lover. Forsyth and Pollard worked closely with Plan B (679 Recordings), a sharp-tongued young MC, to update the script and re-shoot the video, liberally adopting the style and aesthetic of contemporary urban music videos. The resulting film is a combination of reconstruction and revision, a double-take, a superimposition paralleling two eras, two forms of cultural expression and two dialogues; the dialogue with the Acconci piece and the dialogue with the camera - the viewer, you. The piece was filmed in one 24 minute take, with a single, static camera. Iain and Jane then took the footage to Rushes to work with colourist Marcus Timpson on grading the look of the image to achieve the feel of a contemporary urban music video. First exhibited in Iain and Jane's first solo show at Kate MacGarry, London UK during September - October 2005 and about to be shown in Surfing The Surface curated by Cecilia Canziani at Galleria Paolo Bonzano in Rome, Italy in February - March 2006. For more information please visit: http://www.iainandjane.com

Anyone else isn't you is a 30 minute unscripted portrait of fourteen young people talking directly to the camera about love and loss. Iain and Jane use the premise of the homemade compilation cassette ('mix tapes') as a trigger to spark each of their subjects into talking candidly. Iain and Jane's dymanic pace of editing jumps back and forth between the subjects, mixing meaning and blurring narratives to heighten the oscillations between moments of brash self-confidence and crushing uneasiness. Some of the participants impart stories about their lovers, some share stories of unrequited or lost love. All describe similar moments and emphasize their need to make connections to others through music they love. The mix tape acts as a powerful device; Iain & Jane describe compilation tapes as "an intimate and personally curated mnemonic archives". Each of the collection of songs, operates as a souvenir of a remembered person and time. Anyone else isn't you is a video work made as part of Iain and Jane's ongoing Precious Little series. It was produced specially for an exhibition of the series titled Anyone else isn't you at the London gallery The Hospital. The series began with earlier related works, Everybody else is wrong made in 2004 for Pavilion in Montreal and Fucked up lover made in 2001 for Hobbypop Museum in Dusseldorf. For each of the works Iain and Jane invite around 14 people from a very loosely associated social group to participate. First exhibited in Anyone else isn't you at The Hospital in London from June - July 2005. Touring to George Rodger Gallery, Maidstone from October - December 2005. Online project specially commissioned by JJ Charlesworth, exhibitions curator at the University College for the Creative Arts: http://www.anyoneelseisntyou.com For more information please visit: http://www.iainandjane.com