This is Now: Film and Video After Punk

2 February, 2018
– 4 March, 2018
9am – 5pm (daily)
London Gallery West

Westminster School of Media, Arts & Design
University of Westminster
Watford Road, Harrow
Middlesex HA1 3TP
Solitude, John Maybury, 1981. Courtesy the artist and LUX, London.

Private View:
Thursday 1 February, 5pm-8pm

London Gallery West is pleased to exhibit a touring programme of 1980’s film and video works by the post-punk and scratch video movement, curated by William Fowler of the BFI for LUX, London. This is a rare chance to see the early works of major artists such as Cerith Wyn Evans, Grayson Perry, Isaac Julien as well as filmmakers who successfully moved onto the commercial world of pop promos and commercial cinema such as Steven Chivers, Sophie Muller and John Maybury. Produced mainly in the early 1980’s during a period of great social and political change these radical works are particularly relevant today at a time when tectonic shifts are also taking place in media, arts and society.
‘In the early 1980s, clubbers, art students, new romantics and members of the post-punk scene used inexpensive, domestic technology to find new modes of expression and subvert the mainstream media. Independent VHS tapes were released, stridently bypassing censorship, and Super 8 film was embraced as a cheap yet distinctly lyrical and direct new medium. The DIY approach of punk was powerfully reborn.
The period also saw new perspectives and voices emerge. More female, gay and black filmmakers pushed themselves forward and often they were friends; squatting flats, clubbing and developing new styles and techniques together. When not working with Derek Jarman, John Maybury and Cerith Wyn Evans led the charge amongst the Super 8 crowd, casting friends such as Leigh Bowery and Siouxsie Sioux in fragmented, dreamlike scenarios. Isaac Julien and Grayson Perry also made films as did major pop video director Sophie Muller in her early days. ‘Scratch video’ artists meanwhile cut-up pre- existing material to create startling new juxtapositions and reveal hidden meanings, and had an extraordinary impact.
These programmes focus on work from the early 80s that explored the blurred lines between media images and identity, creating new dialogues between the self and the world. It was an uncertain, politically contentious time; a time in which – very much like today with the internet – technology appeared to ease life, make things more exciting yet also create gaps between people. Artists considered what images and technology could mean and be in their fullest sense.
The majority of the Super 8 and 16mm films due to screen in these programmes have been out of circulation for thirty years. Titles have been tracked down and digitally scanned at 2K. The project forms part of the BFI National Archive’s ongoing work to restore significant yet marginalised areas of historical British experimental film. It is the premier of a project that will later tour internationally through the artist moving image agency LUX. Don’t miss seeing these rediscovered, vibrant and transgressive works.’

Curated by William Fowler, Curator of Artists’ Moving Image, BFI National Archive


Gallery Event
Thursday 1 March, 1pm-2pm

Dr Michael Mazière, Reader in Film and Video at the University of Westminster in conversation with artist George Barber and exhibition curator William Fowler.

Grayson Perry, Anna Thew and Steven Chivers present stunning, lo-fi and strange new fictional worlds. In this programme, arcane beliefs, folk tales and a post-apocalyptic scenario shot in run-down London all provide welcome counterpoints to the rigidity of modern, patriarchal Christian society.
Lost For Words, Anna Thew, 1980, 25min
The Green Witch and Merry Diana, Grayson Perry, 1984, 25min
Men Without Hats: Safety Dance, Tim Pope, 1982, 3min
Catherine De Medicis Part 2, Steven Chivers, 1984, 25min

The moral, political and symbolic integrity of the image itself is explored, attacked and undermined in these very richly textured films. John Maybury casts friends Siouxsie Sioux and David Holah in one of the singularly most stunning and ambitious Super 8 works of the era: Court of Miracles. Young filmmakers bring on the post-modern age.
Court of Miracles, John Maybury, 1982, 40min
Glory Boys, Vanda Carter, 1983, 4min
Territories, Isaac Julien, 1984, 25min
Psychic TV: Unclean, Cerith Wyn Evans 1984, 9min

Mainstream media was treated like a giant library to be plundered for provocative play and subversion in the early 80s. Whether filming their TV screen with a Super 8 camera or deftly copying tape-to-tape, artists juxtaposed disparate material to disrupt the dominant ideologies of the age and create new visual music. Includes notable examples of the Scratch Video phenomenon.
Still Life With Still Born, Cerith Wyn Evans 1980, 20min Skinheads and Roses, Jill Westwood, 1983, 8min
Dolphins and Pop Music, Jeffrey Hinton 1982, 18min
Tilt, George Barber, 1984, 6min
Branson, George Barber, 1983, 2min
Blue Monday, Duvet Brothers, 1984, 4min
Commander in Chief, Gorilla Tapes, 1984, 4min
Art of Noise: Legs, George Barber & George Snow, 1985, 7min Passion Tryptych, Cordelia Swann, 1982, 3min

Weaving film and video together, often utilising religious imagery, and introducing colour, effects and surface texture, filmmakers generated a new, vividly transcendental style by the end of the post-punk era. Key examples of this sensual, visually mature work are presented alongside other dynamic pieces that explore the dreamlike state.
The Technology of Souls, John Maybury, 1981, 11min
In Excelsis Deo (In Adoration of God), Sophie Muller, 1983, 24min Miracle of the Rose, Cerith Wyn Evans, 1984, 25min
The Union Jacking Up, John Maybury, 1985, 18min

Related

Skip to content