Saturday 10 May, 19.00
Tate Modern, Starr Auditorium
Exploring a range of subjects such as cursed clothing, obsessive gestures and desires, and the history of the cinematic slap, eight artists have collaborated with the Festival to create new films that explore the themes of “If Looks Could Kill” . Weaving together the work of photographers, performers, designers, artists and film-makers, the programme takes a long hard look at the fixations, joys and fears that can become attached to garments and styles of dress. The Co-conspirators artists are: Paulette Philips, Eloise Fornieles, Elizabeth McAlpine, Dino Dinco, Shannon Plumb, Derrick Santini and Boudicca.
The diverse approaches include artist Paulette Phillips’ re-sequencing of Hollywood film clips, emphasising the viewer’s pleasure in watching female criminals and the visual codes that mark them as seductive deviants; photographer Derrick Santini’s tracing of a pair of gloves that encourage their wearers to commit the criminal act of frottage; and artist Shannon Plumb’s focusing on New York street corners and the identification of criminals through their appearance. Performance artist Eloise Fornieles has collaborated with cameramen in an interactive gallery performance, which examines the relationship between wasteful consumption and violence , and artist Elizabeth McAlpine has choreographed sequences of slaps from the history of cinema, identifying them as a particularly female form of violence.
Co-conspirators generates a dialogue between several different art forms and creative industries, including film, art, photography, performance and design, and encourages experimentation by artists for whom the moving image is not a primary medium.
Co-conspirators is guest-curated by editor and curator Louise Clarke and writer and curator Laura McLean-Ferris.
Co-Conspirators will also be shown at the Gallery at Sketch on 31 May 2008, 10am – 5pm , 9 Conduit Street , London, W1S 2XG . www.sketch.uk.com
The British designer duo Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby launched their fashion label Boudicca in 1997, and now produce couture and ready-to-wear collections shown internationally. Boudicca have participated in a number of exhibitions including Lost and Found (1999), Skin Tight (2004), Malign Muses: When Fashion Turns Back (2004) and The Fashion Architecture (2005).
LA-based artist, photographer and filmmaker Dino Dinco has shot collections for Bernhard Willhelm, Levi’s, American Apparel’s infamous ads as well as editorial commissions including V, i-D, Dazed & Confused and BUTT. Dinco’s work has also been featured in publications such as Archeology of Elegance: 1980-2000 Twenty Years of Fashion Photography and Bronwyn Cosgrave’s Sample – 100 Fashion Designers, 010 Curators.
Eloise Fornieles’ practice includes performances, installation, photography, film and collaboration. Fornieles’ work explores loss and intimacy often by exploiting the close relationship between beauty and violence. Fornieles has participated in group exhibitions at Haunch of Venison, Paradise Row and Madder Rose in London, and has also exhibited in Seoul, Albania, Israel, Paris and New York.
Elizabeth McAlpine is an artist working with installation and time-based media to test and highlight repetitions and gestures inherent in popular media. Her recent exhibitions and screenings include: Imaginary Solution, Spacex, Exeter; Sedimentary Sight, Ballina Arts Centre, Ireland; The Air is Wet with Sound, Rekord, Oslo; Smoke and Mirrors, Mac, Birmingham; I love cinema and Cinema loves Me, Camden Art Centre, London.
Paulette Philips’ video and installation work employs the sinister and sensitive as she explores ‘how people undo themselves’. Phillips is Associate Professor of Integrated Media in Ontario, Canada where she is based and recent solo exhibitions include Monster Tree at Diaz Contemporary, LA, (2006) Dying to Make a Living, at Sparwasser, Berlin (2005) and The Secret Life of Criminals at Danielle Arnaud, London and Cambridge Art Gallery, Ontario (2004).
Shannon Plumb is a New York-based artist with solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Germany, Austria and at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Ct. Plumb’s work has been included in many group shows including Human Game curated by Francesco Bonami, Maria Luisa Frisa and Stefano Tonchi; Torino Triennial; i-Dentity, Fashion and Textile Museum, London, UK and PS1 Long Island City, NY.
The work of the London and New York-based photographer and filmmaker Derrick Santini explores notions of subtext and the ‘underneath’ in relation to the surface. Frequently appearing in magazines such as Flaunt, i-D, and FHM Collections, Santini’s advertising work includes campaigns for clients such as Jordan, Nike, Reebok, Levi’s, K-Swiss and Heineken and his music photography includes editorial spreads of Muse, Lil’ Kim, Lily Allen, Jamelia, Finley Quaye, Lupe Fiasco, Lady Sovereign, Queen’s of the Stone Age, and The Cardigans.
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Fashion in Film Festival would also like to thank the following organisations and individuals who made this screening possible: Kirin, John Prenn of Lacoste, Sara Meltzer Gallery, Stuart Comer at Tate Modern, Paradise Row, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, Laura Bartlett Gallery and Victoria Brooks at the Gallery at Sketch.
See also: Body Double X and Office Killer