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Video Days takes its title from the 90s skateboard video by Blind Skateboards. Produced in 1991 by American skateboarder and filmmaker, Spike Jonze, the iconic video depicts street and park skating in the US, and is considered one of the most influential skate videos of its time.

For the duration of 25 days the gallery will be transformed into an open cinema. Running daily, Video Days presents a different film or series of short films each day from different decades and genres. The films screened share several common themes, most prevalent is their relationship to the built environment.

All films/performances are played on repeat unless specified otherwise.

DISCLAIMER

The films on display do not come with a British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). We therefore advise that some of the films shown may contain scenes of nudity, discrimination, violence, drugs, imitable behaviour, and language unsuitable for young or vulnerable viewers. If you have any questions prior to visiting the gallery, please get in touch.

WEEK FOUR SCREENINGS

Tuesday 8 May

Emily Richardson, Beach House, 2015 (17 mins).
Looped all day.

Beach House, Shingle St, Suffolk Beach House is a film about a unique example of rural modernism, built on the UK coast of Suffolk by architect John Penn. Penn was an architect, painter, musician and poet whose nine houses in East Suffolk are all built with uncompromising symmetry adhering to the points of the compass in their positioning in the landscape they use a limited language of materials and form that were influenced by his time spent working in California with Richard Neutra. They are Californian modernist pavilions in the Suffolk landscape. Beach House is John Penn’s most uncompromising design in terms of idea as form. The film combines an archive film made by Penn himself on completion of the house with experimental sound recordings made during the same period and material recently filmed in the house to explore a convergence of filmic and architectural language and allow the viewer to piece together Beach House in its past and present forms.

Wednesday 9 May

John Maybury, Read Only Memory, 1998, (92 mins). Courtesy of Lux, London.
Screening times: 10 am, 11.45 am, 1.30 pm, 15.15 pm

Maybury’s significant contribution to experimental film and video becomes apparent through a complex reworking of his own archive footage.

“The film’s attempt to re-create an acid trip is showcased in this creature’s dance: whenever she moves, a rainbow of colors and shapes appear, as if her appendages are the artist’s brushes”.

Gary Morris

Thursday 10 May (late opening)

Reactor, The Gold Ones, 2018, (10 hours).
This special edit of The Gold Ones will run in it’s entirety, 10 am – 8 pm

The project is an evolving narrative, that uses video, performance and installation to explore an imagined future inhabited by characters collectively known as the Gold Ones. When Max Gold’s video transmission first came through in 2014, he named himself ‘one of the Gold Ones’. After tracking Max for a period, filming began in the space known as the Cosmic Care Home (CCH). Initially remaining in what could be described as the outer or back spaces of the CCH, looking through the walls that are at times transparent, or listening in on voices from the other side. This is where the Gold Ones live, and despite their existence on a higher spiritual plane, beyond the limitations of time – the place they inhabit resembles what would be described as a ‘total institution’. They appear to be predominantly cut off from a wider community, and lead an enclosed and bureaucratically controlled existence. What has been seen to date is some semblance of the outer perimeter, or the first entry point into the body of the CCH. It is intended that you will further get to know the Gold Ones through the documentary that is being made here now, and in the future, about who they were and how they exist.

Friday 11 May

A new film work from Friends. More information coming soon.

Saturday 12 May

Various, Nottingham Archive Films, courtesy of Mace Archive.
Looped all day.


It is happening again.
Here, the Gold Ones were.
We’ve heard that before.
But this time it was flatter.

So, as we were saying.
It’s an original story.
No, this is an origin story.
Everyone already knows this.

Everywhen, here and there.
This is what we always said.
Mis-shaped and not in proportion.
As though seen for the first time.

This is an explainer: Following on from Reactor’s residency in 2021, they return with a new video installation that describes what came before. Digital animation, mobile sculpture and choreographed performance combine to please the ears and eyes. Gather round for the reveal, succumb to each and every tall tale told, even when this belief is unfounded.

Special thanks to Adam Sinclair (Animation), Lotti V Closs (Additional Modeling Support), Jim Brouwer (AV Consultant), Rebecca Lee, Alison Lloyd and NTU Fine Art students (Voices) for collaborating on Here, the Gold Ones flatter.

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). 

This is how too,
When the time is right,
The Hands gather together,
To GO again.

I see that,
From your perspective,
The lines fall into focus,
As though directed from above.

The life of the models,
Informs the Fourth World,
Their flickering motion,
Stirs the Soup.

This is a spoiler: For one day only, within Reactor’s current exhibition Here, the Gold Ones flatter, a choreographed performance brings the models to life. Helping Hands slip easily into particular models as though they were made to fit. The path of the models is straight and runs right round. Over-cycles the hoop turns and reality dissolves, Hands become those from the past and youse can watch from within the corral.

Special thanks to Ellen Angus, Rebecca Beinart, Pádraig Condron , Beth Kettel, Nastassja Simensky, Reece Straw and Aisling Ward for performing in The life of the models.

What’s happening in the Cosmic Care Home today? 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.

This livestream 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.
This event was live-streamed and no longer available to view.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.

Live Streams
The Gold Ones’ Dummies

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.

Ivan Poe Roll-Thru + Discussion

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.

CCH 24hr TV

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.

Performance Prediction

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.

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).