Reactor and Plastique Fantastique have been talking about producing a performance fiction for some time.
We/they (Reactor/Plastique Fantastique) said that there would be a get-together to discuss this performance friction at some point in the future.
We (Reactor) called them and said now might be the time.
They (Plastique Fantastique) agreed and said: one hot summer long ago – 21 June 1998 – after travelling back to a pleasure park and forecasting what would later be said to have been called forth (our, Reactor’s, performance fiction), they (Plastique Fantastique) had created a set of protocols (a recording) for our (Reactor’s) performance.
They (Plastique Fantastique) claim an enunciation, or a type of performance diction/dictation was cast, for us (Reactor) to follow – an enunciation derived from tarot reading and looping sessions.
We (Reactor) listened in at the other end of the line, but wouldn’t quite hear correctly, and so the performance prediction didn’t happen (they, Plastique Fantastique, said it did and it was followed by us, Reactor, precisely).
So, we/they (Reactor/Plastique Fantastique) thought best to make that known beforehand. Are you (you) OK with that? You (you) are OK with that, so thanks for your attendance.
Bonington Gallery is delighted to present Andrew Logan The Joy of Sculpture, a solo exhibition spanning 50 years of practice from one of Britain’s most iconic artists. Andrew – sculptor, painter, and jewellery artist – is known for challenging convention, mixing media and playing with artistic values.
The Joy of Sculpture presents a collection of Andrew Logan’s work – from large-scale sculptures, mirror portraits and jewellery, and archive displays from his infamous Alternative Miss World competitions. Including new creations and those never shown before, this exhibition brings together all areas of Logan’s practice in a single place.
Andrew’s artwork reflects his unrelenting, and infectious, passion, joy and energy. Smashed glass and found objects are transformed, becoming flamboyant, colourful and glittering objects, in all shapes and sizes.
Key works within the The Joy of Sculpture include:
Andrew’s work doesn’t offer that much to the would-be catalogue mystifier. If you start saying anything too pretentious about it, it sort of laughs in your face. It’s hard to place, because it doesn’t really quite belong anywhere, guilelessly straddling a number of heavily contested boundaries – such as those between art and craft, between art and decoration, between pop and fine, between the profane and sacred.
Brian Eno
Our Bonington Vitrines will house archive material from Andrew’s celebrated Alternative Miss World competition. The infamous pageant, inspired by the Crufts dog show, was started in 1972 and hosted by Logan – who acts as both host and hostess. Contestants and judges over the years have included David Hockney, Ruby Wax, Leigh Bowery, Grayson Perry, and Zandra Rhodes.
Accompanying The Joy of Sculpture will be a programme of public events, as well as a commissioned essay by Lynda Morris, curator, writer and Andrew’s acquaintance.
Header image credit: Andrew Logan as Host and Hostess for Alternative Miss World 1973 by Mick Rock.
Curated by Joshua Lockwood-Moran
With support from Tom Godfrey and Brianna Frazier Selph
Joshua would like to extend his special thanks to Andrew Logan, the team at Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture and to Thomas Lockwood-Moran. Other artists featured within the exhibition are: Dick Jewell, Brian Shuel and Jane Thorburn.
Technicians: Harry Freestone, Sam Famula, Sorcha Mayes, Mark Flanagan, Jennifer Savage and Ryan Young.
Lending Institutions: Arts Council Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Andrew Logan Museum of Sculpture, De Montfort University Special Collections.
Private Lenders: Piers Atkinson, Marc Balet, Amanda Barrie, Lila Bryan, Michael Davis, Brita Forsstrom, Angelika Grohmann, Maggi Hambling, Lynn Hanke, Emma Kane, Rebecca Hoffberger, Jane Linklater, Daniel Lismore, Richard & Polly Logan, Diane & Peter Logan, Philipa & James Logan, Kate Malone, Anthea Norman-Taylor, Baroness Patricia Rawlings, Zandra Rhodes, Lynn Seymour, Juliana Sissons, Keir Malam & Paddy Whitaker, Janet Slee and those who wish not to be named.
We’re pleased to be presenting an online conference, ‘Patterns of Struggle and Solidarity’, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) Postcolonial Studies Centre. The conference aims to explore the practice and study of cultural activism from any discipline across postcolonial studies.
The engagement with cultural activism has long been a prominent concern in postcolonial studies; in our current moment, this focus is rife for exploration and, crucially, interrogation. How do academics fit into the field of cultural activism? How do academics and activists conceptualise patterns of struggle and solidarity? What role does postcolonial research play in supporting and amplifying the voices and work of cultural activists, in particular in the fields of literature, art, film, craft and performance art? How do cultural activists and performers engage with postcolonial studies? Papers and panels will involve conversations between researchers, cultural activists and practitioners.
On Thursday, the authors Tsitsi Dangarembga and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi talk about their latest work and their shared experiences with publishing and readership across Africa, Europe and North America; and the PSC’s writer-in-residence Eve Makis is in conversation with the nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize Sevgül Uludağ, the Turkish Cypriot journalist and peace activist. On Friday, scholars present their research in postcolonial studies on wide range of topics, followed by a performance of the Dalit rapper Sumit Samos. The events on Saturday include a roundtable discussion on craft, activism and ethics, a creative writing workshop, a conversation with the Palestinian culinary activist Mirna Bamieh and a screening of Reginald Campbell’s Tolerance (2013).
Organised by NTU’s Postcolonial Studies Centre and convened by Dr Nicole Thiara, Dr Amy Rushton, Dr Jenni Ramone, Midlands4Cities funded PhD researcher Thomas Lockwood-Moran and PhD researcher Purnachandra Naik.
Sevgül Uludağ is a Turkish Cypriot journalist and peace activist. Working as an investigative reporter, she has been instrumental in uncovering the fates of hundreds of missing people. As part of a series of interviews entitled ‘the politics of disappearance’, writer Eve Makis will be talking to Sevgül about her work and how her search for peace has made her the target for physical and verbal threats. Sevgül Uludağ in conversation with Eve Makis
Watch on YouTube
In the spirit of struggle and solidarity, this unique event brings together two of the most exciting writers to discuss their latest work and their shared experiences with publishing and readership across Africa, Europe and North America. Facilitated by Dr Nicole Thiara (Co-Director of the Postcolonial Studies Centre) and Dr Amy Rushton (Senior Lecturer, NTU)
Watch on YouTube
Participants: Ngahuia Harrison, Valentina de Riso, Ana Cristina Mendes and Pragya Sharma
Watch on YouTube
Participants: Sephora Jose, Aswathi Moncy Joseph, Putul Sathe and Margarida Martins
Watch on YouTube
Participants: Dani Olver, Anandita Pan, Debashrita Dey & Priyanka Tripathi and Abol Froushan & Ali Abdolrezaie
Watch on YouTube
Join us for a performance by the Dalit rapper Sumit Samos, followed by conversation with him moderated by Paul Adey.
Watch on YouTube
Kandy Diamond and Amy Rushton speak with Seleena Laverne Daye (artist and educator), Isobel Carse and Karen Hughes (Dormouse Chocolates), and Sofia Aatkar (Pom Pom Quarterly), to discuss issues of craft practice as activism.
Watch on YouTube
Mirna Bamieh talks to Eve Makis, from her home in Ramallah, explaining how she uses storytelling and food as mediums to express her creativity and Palestinian identity.
Watch on YouTube
Join Manjit Sahota (Poets Against Racism) and Leanne Moden to explore the vital role poetry plays in protest in a Zoom workshop.
Please join us for a discussion guided by literary researchers Thomas Lockwood-Moran and Holly King, surrounding queer representation within postcolonial studies.
Watch on YouTube
Join us for a free, live performance roll-thru on YouTube of the Ivan Poe video game, as this cuboid character keeps truckin’ on through the Cosmic Soup.
The Ivan Poe game has been developed in collaboration by Reactor, Bruce Asbestos and Jez Noond. For this event they will be joined by Kitty Clark, Mark Jackson and Jamie Sutcliffe to discuss video games, performance streaming and the myriad overlaps.
This free online event is part of the residency and new video-installation by the art collective Reactor. Currently on show at Bonington Gallery, it documents the lives of a cohort of higher spiritual beings known as the Gold Ones.
Click here to watch via YouTube
About Reactor
Reactor is an art collective, comprising Susie Henderson, Niki Russell and an undisclosed number of secret members. Recent and forthcoming projects include: ‘Ivan Poe’ (online), Kunstraum (London), Southwark Park Galleries (London), Quad (Derby) and Hexham Arts Centre, ‘The Gold Ones’, Radar (Loughborough), Plymouth Art Weekender, Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Gallery North (Newcastle) and xero, kline & coma (London), ‘Log!c ?stem’, Flux Factory (New York), ‘Dummy Button’, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin).
In this free live stream, remote viewing provides access to the Gold Ones’ Dummies. See inside the Cosmic Care Home and discover the mysterious lives of The Gold Ones.
What can be seen here is an increasingly incessant transmission from within the Cosmic Care Home. As the Gold Ones move through cycles of activity – rest, care, affirmation, exercise, games, and treatment – we get to know each of them, their relations and woo-woo beliefs.
This free online event is part of the residency and new video-installation by the art collective Reactor. Currently on show at Bonington Gallery, it documents the lives of a cohort of higher spiritual beings known as the Gold Ones.
Reactor is an art collective, comprising Susie Henderson, Niki Russell and an undisclosed number of secret members. Recent and forthcoming projects include: ‘Ivan Poe’ (online), Kunstraum (London), Southwark Park Galleries (London), Quad (Derby) and Hexham Arts Centre, ‘The Gold Ones’, Radar (Loughborough), Plymouth Art Weekender, Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Gallery North (Newcastle) and xero, kline & coma (London), ‘Log!c ?stem’, Flux Factory (New York), ‘Dummy Button’, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin).
Due to the current lockdown restrictions, the Reactor exhibition will be in residence at Bonington Gallery from 7 April – 29 May 2021. This will be punctuated by live events streamed from the gallery. The exhibition will open to the public from 17 May 2021.
[COSMIC SOUP – RECORDED MESSAGE STARTS AGAIN]
Can you hear me?
Yes we can hear you quite clearly now.
It’s good to speak with you again.
What is it like there?
Here, there are endlessly repeating cosmic planes.
Visions of the past and future are accessible.
That’s how we remember it anyway.
So, we’re projecting now.
You’ll need to read between the lines.
Piece together the glimpses. The pieces.
You’re about to arrive.
[INTERFERENCE – LINE CUTS OFF – IMMENSE, BUBBLING, COLOURFUL PATTERNS]
The Gold Ones have existed across time, and now reside in the Cosmic Care Home (CCH). On this particular cosmic plane they are cut off from a wider community, and lead a bureaucratically controlled existence, cared for by elusive Helping Hands. What can be seen here, is an increasingly incessant transmission from within the Home. As the Gold Ones move through cycles of activity – rest, care, affirmation, breakfast, exercise, games, and treatment – we get to know each of them, their relations and woo-woo beliefs.
This performance-fiction is an evolving narrative, using video, performance, games and installation to explore an imagined present-future-past inhabited by characters collectively known as the Gold Ones. When Max Gold’s first video broadcast came through, he designated himself as ‘one of the Gold Ones’. An undetermined cohort of higher spiritual beings, or so they claim. After tracking Max for a period, we began to watch them intensely, to uncover them one by one. Initially remaining in the back spaces of the CCH, looking through the transparent walls, or listening in on voices from the other side. Here now, if and when we’re ready, you can join the Gold Ones in the main gathering room.
Saturday 1 May, 5 pm – 8 pm
Remote viewing provides access to the Gold Ones’ Dummies.
What can be seen here is an increasingly incessant transmission from within the Cosmic Care Home. As the Gold Ones move through cycles of activity – rest, care, affirmation, exercise, games, and treatment – we get to know each of them, their relations and woo-woo beliefs.
This event is part of the residency and new video-installation by the art collective Reactor currently on show at Bonington Gallery, which documents the lives of a cohort of higher spiritual beings known as The Gold Ones.
Thursday 13 May, 7 pm – 8.30 pm
A live performance roll-thru of the Ivan Poe video game, as this cuboid character keeps truckin’ on through the Cosmic Soup.
The Ivan Poe game has been developed in collaboration by Reactor, Bruce Asbestos and Jez Noond. For this event they will be joined by Kitty Clark, Mark Jackson and Jamie Sutcliffe to discuss video games, performance streaming and the myriad overlaps.
This event is part of the residency and new video-installation by the art collective Reactor currently on show at Bonington Gallery, which documents the lives of a cohort of higher spiritual beings known as The Gold Ones.
Monday 10 May, 5pm – Saturday 29 May, 3pm
What’s happening in the Cosmic Care Home today? Tune into the CCH 24hr TV transmission. Scrolling through the numerous cameras in the Home, the Helping Hands choose what you can see, around the clock. These cycles of slow-rest, care, break-fast, and well … what you can see now, is that time for the Gold Ones travels differently.
Thursday 15 July, 7pm – 8.30pm
Reactor and Plastique Fantastique have been talking about producing a performance fiction for some time.
We/they (Reactor/Plastique Fantastique) said that there would be a get-together to discuss this performance friction at some point in the future.
We (Reactor) called them and said now might be the time.
They (Plastique Fantastique) agreed and said: one hot summer long ago – 21 June 1998 – after travelling back to a pleasure park and forecasting what would later be said to have been called forth (our, Reactor’s, performance fiction), they (Plastique Fantastique) had created a set of protocols (a recording) for our (Reactor’s) performance.
They (Plastique Fantastique) claim an enunciation, or a type of performance diction/dictation was cast, for us (Reactor) to follow – an enunciation derived from tarot reading and looping sessions.
We (Reactor) listened in at the other end of the line, but wouldn’t quite hear correctly, and so the performance prediction didn’t happen (they, Plastique Fantastique, said it did and it was followed by us, Reactor, precisely).
So, we/they (Reactor/Plastique Fantastique) thought best to make that known beforehand. Are you (you) OK with that? You (you) are OK with that, so thanks for your attendance.
Reactor is an art collective, comprising Susie Henderson, Niki Russell and an undisclosed number of secret members. Recent and forthcoming projects include: ‘Ivan Poe’ (online), Kunstraum (London), Southwark Park Galleries (London), Quad (Derby) and Hexham Arts Centre, ‘The Gold Ones’, Radar (Loughborough), Plymouth Art Weekender, Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo), Gallery North (Newcastle) and xero, kline & coma (London), ‘Log!c ?stem’, Flux Factory (New York), ‘Dummy Button’, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin).