Discussion with screening excerpts
Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard have been matchmaking contemporary visual art with film-making since way back in '98. With their long-time collaboration with Nick Cave culminating in the documentary '20,000 Days On Earth,' the pair visit Darklight to discuss re-enactment, performance and experience as we showcase their finest work.
Having pioneered the use of re-enactment in contemporary visual art with a series of live art projects begun in 1996, Forsyth and Pollard turned their attention to the moving image and began to look for ways to duplicate and capture ‘liveness’ on video.
'File Under Sacred Music' takes as its starting point an infamous bootleg video documenting a live performance by The Cramps for the patients at Napa State Mental Institute, California on 13 June 1978. Captured on blurred and grainy black and white videotape, this unique social document has been shared among fans since the early eighties.
We will be screening 'File Under Sacred Music,' along with a number of Forsyth and Pollard works that connect with the What's Up Doc? Strand. We will also be showing excerpts from '20,000 days On Earth.'