End of Empire & Now the Hero

I have been invited to create a new performance at the Glynn Vivian Gallery in Swansea to take place 5-8pm on Friday 21st 2018 as part of the preview event for Yinka Shonibare’s “End of Empire” exhibition and start of the week of art activities tying into Marc Rees’ “Now the Hero”. 

I am searching my archive to find records connecting to the themes of these two works and to the gallery and its location.  Looking at the partially installed work by Yinka Shonibare last weekend I was reminded of this Talking Heads album cover ..

I plan to use records made in Swansea, (I discovered the Welsh Teledisc label was run from 139 Walter Rd, Swansea), by artists from the Swansea area (Harry Secombe and Morriston Orpheus Choir perhaps..), and songs/artists connected to WW1 and empire (Oh What a Lovely War!, Alf Garnet etc).

I might also throw in some records responding to the Glyn Vivian collection, I noticed a series of seascapes and wondered about some shanties…

and this…

I did some work with records for Swansea and the Glyn Vivian some years ago for a Welsh-Estonian artist exchange thing.  It included a mix of records made with artists and recordings from the area and a performance on Swansea beach.
About a year later I (unsuccessfully) applied for an exhibition opportunity there and made some other mixes.. I made a playlist of things from back then on Youtube which I cant seem to embed so have to link to by here instead

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Non-Stop Dancing

A selection of records on a moving theme https://flic.kr/s/aHsmhbkHHd

A small exhibition of records in Bara Menyn, Cardigan, August 2018.
Owners, Jack and Seren had just returned from their annual holiday at west Wales dance camp.

 

Mixes at an Exhibition

I was invited to create a live mix for the opening of Strange Eden, an exhibition of work by James Moore in Oriel Mwldan Gallery, Cardigan.

Records were selected in response to the work on display and following a few conversations with James ahead of the event.

Records used include: Tomita – Pictures at an Exhibition; Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Pictures at an Exhibition; Debussy – La Mer; Jean Michel Jarre Live; BBC Sound Effects No6; RCA Home Movie Sound Effects; Landscape III – You Know how to Hurt me; Top Gun OST; I also used a cassette tape of VU-3D for Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Loops were found randomly from the records using bits of wire to hold the tone arms.

Mix for an Exhibition (Picture 10)

Really enjoyed trying out these records and incorporating the VU-3D Sinclair Spectrum cassette…

If theres no soundcloud player above, you should find the track here titled Picture 10 https://soundcloud.com/jacobwhittaker-1/tracks

Mixes for an Exhibition

Couple of warm up/test mixes for the exhibition opening on Saturday – 3.45 Oriel Mwldan, Cardigan.

If for some reason the players above don’t show up in your browser, you can find them on soundcloud here titled Picture 02 & Picture 06 https://soundcloud.com/jacobwhittaker-1/tracks

 

Picture This

Four pictures of records of Pictures at an Exhibition for a performance of Records at an Exhibition of Pictures.

28th April 3.45 Oriel Mwldan Gallery, Cardigan.

Records at an Exhibition

Really looking forward to playing some records for the opening of this exhibition by James Moore.

We met some weeks ago for some tea and a chat about ideas and how to select records and devise a new performance work for the exhibition opening.   I am developing quite a diverse selection.. likely to include some synth classics as well as BBC sound effects, the Top Gun soundtrack and Michael Jackson’s Bad.