1667: Not Alive, Just Living, 2019, 34 mins
Video installation (16mm, 4K, HD Video), performance & workshop
at Nottingham Contemporary, 7-8th August 2019
1667: Not Alive, Just Living is a video installation and performed exorcism to ignite the spirits of Arthur Coga – a late recipient to the 17th century non-human to human blood transfusions of the French physician, Jean-Baptiste Denis, who made numerous attempts to transfer the spirit of the lamb (via blood) into sick human patients to heal them. In ongoing collaboration with musicians Rosa Irwin Clark, Sean B. Goldring and Cédric Fauq, the work provides an open vessel for improvisation and contextual transformation. Worlds end - Continually end - Living happens -
Part-post-humanist gothic fiction and part-folk-revival homage; 1667: Not Alive, Just Living chronicles the time-travelling transformation of Arthur Coga during their treatment, speaking from the blood, the lives and the multitude of voices that take host of them. Working from research into histories of queer and ecological activism, British folk music, vampiricism and intersecting forms of land and social toxicity, the performance presents a spiralling fable and swan song for when ‘life’ is determined by religion and capital. As above, so below. The toxic voice of a mysterious substance seeps through the slippages, passing from carrier to carrier, species to species, with unstable and vampiric consequences.
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1667: Not Alive, Just Living is a video installation and performed exorcism to ignite the spirits of Arthur Coga – a late recipient to the 17th century non-human to human blood transfusions of the French physician, Jean-Baptiste Denis, who made numerous attempts to transfer the spirit of the lamb (via blood) into sick human patients to heal them. In ongoing collaboration with musicians Rosa Irwin Clark, Sean B. Goldring and Cédric Fauq, the work provides an open vessel for improvisation and contextual transformation. Worlds end - Continually end - Living happens -
Part-post-humanist gothic fiction and part-folk-revival homage; 1667: Not Alive, Just Living chronicles the time-travelling transformation of Arthur Coga during their treatment, speaking from the blood, the lives and the multitude of voices that take host of them. Working from research into histories of queer and ecological activism, British folk music, vampiricism and intersecting forms of land and social toxicity, the performance presents a spiralling fable and swan song for when ‘life’ is determined by religion and capital. As above, so below. The toxic voice of a mysterious substance seeps through the slippages, passing from carrier to carrier, species to species, with unstable and vampiric consequences.
Based on the song ‘The Christian's Good Night’:
Words: Sarah Doudney, Psalms of Life (published by Houlston), 1871. Music: Ira David Sankey
Adapted to ’Bid You Goodnight’ - Joseph Spence and the Pinder Family, 1965
Adapted to ‘A Very Cellular Song’ - The Incredible String Band, 1968, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
Including the writing piece Sucker (Slow Death) - a response to Let Us Praise The Masters of Slow Death, Diamanda Galas, Plague Mass, 1991
Singers: Justus, Eva & Reuben.
Prop and Mask Advisor: Charlie Goodall
Sound Engineer: Sean B. Goldring - Recorded at Knapp Studios in Well Projects, Margate.
Film processed and scanned by Gauge Films.
Special thanks to Lis Rhodes, Mikhail Karikis, George Harding, Kris Lock, Eliott Mussi, Cédric Fauq, Sofia Lemos, Kate Paul, Sean B. Goldring, Tamsin Kavanagh, Giacomo Goldoni, Zara Miller, Bobby Bridger, Arthur Coga, Sheep, Douglas Harding, Mike Heron, Justus , Eva, Reuben, Amoebas that are very small and everyone who participated in the Writing for the Toxic Voice sessions.
1667: Not Alive, Just Living was commissioned and kindly supported by Nottingham Contemporary, with funding from Nottingham Trent University & University of Nottingham. With additional support from Well Projects.
Words: Sarah Doudney, Psalms of Life (published by Houlston), 1871. Music: Ira David Sankey
Adapted to ’Bid You Goodnight’ - Joseph Spence and the Pinder Family, 1965
Adapted to ‘A Very Cellular Song’ - The Incredible String Band, 1968, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
Including the writing piece Sucker (Slow Death) - a response to Let Us Praise The Masters of Slow Death, Diamanda Galas, Plague Mass, 1991
Singers: Justus, Eva & Reuben.
Prop and Mask Advisor: Charlie Goodall
Sound Engineer: Sean B. Goldring - Recorded at Knapp Studios in Well Projects, Margate.
Film processed and scanned by Gauge Films.
Special thanks to Lis Rhodes, Mikhail Karikis, George Harding, Kris Lock, Eliott Mussi, Cédric Fauq, Sofia Lemos, Kate Paul, Sean B. Goldring, Tamsin Kavanagh, Giacomo Goldoni, Zara Miller, Bobby Bridger, Arthur Coga, Sheep, Douglas Harding, Mike Heron, Justus , Eva, Reuben, Amoebas that are very small and everyone who participated in the Writing for the Toxic Voice sessions.
1667: Not Alive, Just Living was commissioned and kindly supported by Nottingham Contemporary, with funding from Nottingham Trent University & University of Nottingham. With additional support from Well Projects.
