Since 1997, over 200 sessions of stray images and sound have been organised. Artists, writers, scientists and musicians present work in progress, experiment or present work that doesn't fit into their oeuvre (yet). A specific and unique stage for diverse and hybrid works which don't fit comfortably into galleries or museums.
Visual Artist (UK), website
Video artist Paul Simon Richards screened a short film titled ∆ HS. FS. ZWNBS. N-C. BS., an esoteric acronym that represents the coding required to place a gap between two lines of text on a website. The mild-mannered Richards walked up to the stage wearing navy blue denim jeans and what appeared to be a faux Versace pattern jumper, quietly explaining that the film was an attempt to recreate investigations into his own imagination under the effects of clinical hypnosis. It opens with a 3D rendering of man wearing a leopard print hat and matching jacket drifting about in a black void. It quickly cuts to the same man dancing about in black room and then zips to a close-up of a face of an attractive Italian women in front of a green screen with gunmetal eyes the size of dinner plates and flowing golden locks as she commences a hypnotic séance, describing a ear ring and suggesting that the viewer focus in on it, going deeper and deeper until its molecular composition becomes revealed.
The audiences’ eyes began to lull when we were brought back to (sur)reality with the image of two white spheres slowly attracting and repulsing each other accompanied by a piercing sound that can only be compared to emergency signals transmitted during television broadcasts. This phantasmagorical film jumps back and forth between monologues from our mysterious belladonna, the man, and abstract animated sequences that bring to mind aspects of Lemon Jelly’s seminal album and accompanying film ’64 to ’95 combined with the stream-of-conscious ravings from the likes of James Joyce. Though some viewers might find it unsettling, I believe there is a method to Richards’ madness. The film is cohesive and doesn’t come off as completely disjointed and provocative for its own sake. It is something that has to be seen to be understood, if that is actually possible; words really don’t give it justice, when it becomes publically available take a gander if you dare.
Video, 2014, 14 min
Shown at L&F Theatrum Anatomicum (06–02–2015)