!WOWOW! and Plastique Fantastique

Friday 4 January 2008

18.00–22.00

In collaboration with International Project Space, Birmingham, expect an evening of performance and music, including interventions from !WOWOW!, the creative collective of artists, fashion designers, writers and musicians, and The Chymical Wedding, a performance from the future-past-fiction guerrilla group Plastique Fantastique.

Catch Millais and Turner Prize: A Retrospective in their final few days.

General Information

Main pay bar in the North Duveens on Level 2

18.00–21.30, Last drinks at 21.30

Bar in Manton Foyer

18.00–21.30, Last drinks at 21.30

Refreshments available in the Café on Level 1

18.00–21.30

Restaurant open from 18.45–20.45

Last sitting 21.00

Main Shop on Level 2 open until 21.40

Collection displays open 18.00–21.40

Half price tickets for exhibitions, Millais and Turner Prize: A Retrospective will be available from the Manton Ticket Desk.

Plastique Fantastique

Plastique Fantastique will perform The Chymical Wedding and present two films, What is a pre-industrial modern? and 24 hour puja for the people-yet-to-come. The Chymical Wedding draws upon the custom of ‘mumming’. Traditionally, ‘mummers’ would wander the country, drunk and in masks, and gatecrash New Year festivities to perform a play. The Chymical Wedding also draws upon the examples of Sacher-Masoch and John Dee, to enact a bodily transformation and a communion with angels through physical stimulation and ritual performance.

Plastique Fantastique is a future-past orientated fiction that is also a performative investigation of aesthetics, the sacred and politics. Plastique Fantastique’s films, objects and performances are written and produced by David Burrows and Simon O’Sullivan in collaboration with others.

North Duveens

19.00–21.30

What is a pre-industrial modern? (Film screening).

The Octagon

18.00–21.30

24 hour puja for the people-yet-to-come (Film Screening).

The Chymical Wedding

Throughout the Duveen Galleries

19.15–20.15

The performance will take the form of a procession, starting at Parliament Square at 19.15, entering Tate Britain Millbank Entrance at 19.45 and proceeding through the gallery, stopping in the The Octagon at 19.55 and finishing at the far end of the North Duveens at 20.10.

For The Chymical Wedding, Plastique Fantastique avatars will be:

Fox-owl/Simon O’Sullivan, Black-hare/Aryapala, Ribbon-head/Samudadraka, Borromean-knothead/Vanessa Page, Acephole/Daniel Wolsson (the sacred eternal forms); Subkast-kofke/David Burrows, Amoebadesign/Robyn Payne, Refuseyworky/Andrew Hunt, Mur-mur-dead-thing/Liam Scully, Sijk MUJIk/Alex Marzeta and Fujik MUJIk/Cherry McCloughlin, (the redundant commodity forms).

!WOWOW!

!WOWOW! is a multi-disciplinary group of artists, designers, musicians, writers and performers known for hosting artist-led projects in disused South-London spaces. For Late at Tate Britain, !WOWOW! will present a series of songs, actions, films and performances exploring the myth of Prometheus.

!WOWOW! DJ’s

North Duveens

18.00–21.30

Miss Match and F.Lunaire

Adam James - Wandering Performance

Throughout the gallery

18.00–21.30

Moving around the gallery and followed by a small chorus of whispering assistants, Adam James will be changing into and out of characters from the Prometheus myth, all of the characters will be contained within suitcases.

Sean Michael - Wandering Performance

Throughout the gallery

18.00–21.30

Media control and multinational companies, the contemporary Olympians, represent Zeus in Michael’s performance. The participants will represent the most cumbersome form of worship, those most affected by the force of commercialism. Dressed head to toe in labels; they will bear the stones of Zeus’ punishment around their necks with pride.

Room 9

18.00–18.30

Live performances from:

Adham Faramawy I can do impossible things.

An echolalic chant in Arabic accompanied by two drummers. A ritual for acceleration and progress (with special thanks to Craig Bowers and Jack Brennan).

Tintin Cooper Promethean Invention

Kerri Gallacher & Lauren Dillard

Chupacabra perform ‘Dance of the Underdog’ (make up and costumes by Dominic Jones).

18.30–18.45

Amy McDonough Warm-up Act part I: Birth

On the rocks, Promethean Mother Earth gives birth to the donkey creature in Blackpool’s epic nappy saga.

18.45–19.00

Hugh Chapman A Procession of the Gods and Prometheus Bound to the Rock

A dramatization of the Prometheus myth in group performances including A Procession of the Gods and Prometheus Bound To The Rock. In collaboration with conductor James Bull he is bringing together a choir that will act as a chorus and accompaniment to other artist’s work over the course of the evening.

19.00–19.15

Luke Sellers Warm-up Act Part II: Death

On the rocks, Prometheus - in both female and male guise is attacked and tortured by an Eagle.

19.30–19.45

Chycca Untitled; A physical Opera

Chycca will recite a poem, a physical opera, accompanied by electronic music composed by Chycca and Matthew Stone.

19.45–20.00

Matthew Stone Megalithic Dance Piece I (After Prometheus Bound) (2007)

This live performance features seven dancing stones. The stone’s dance to celebrate both the emancipation of Prometheus as told in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound (with special thanks to Tara Grant).

21.00–21.30

Theo Adams and Hanna Hanra Opera

Theo Adams and Hanna Hanra present a musical extravaganza - a rhapsody of pain, power and passion! (with thanks to Todd Hart).

!WOWOW! Film Reel

Auditorium

18.00–21.30

A series of short films and animations inspired by the myth of Prometheus. Including:

Untitled James Balmforth,

Promethean Invention Tintin Cooper (additional animation by Tessy Cooper).

Time Wave Zero Adham Faramawy

The Dance of the Underdog Kerri Gallagher/Lauren Dillard,

FLESH TO BONES TO HOLES TO FLESH (2007)

Isabel Gonzalez Toro Still Photography: Julia Corsaro, special thanks to Lina Santa (Graphics).

Untitled Rachel Haines

Untitled Amy McDonough

Untitled Sean Michael

Untitled Ellie Tobin

THE CHYMICAL WEDDING

PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE

PERFORMANCE

The Chymical Wedding: artist statement

19.15 First Protocol (procession)

We, the avatars of Plastique Fantastique, (the mummers from a distant planet), will assemble in Parliament Square for a procession along the banks of the Thames to Tate Britain.

19.45 Second Protocol (announcement)

We, (an alliance of redundant-commodity-forms and residual-sacred-forms), reach the steps of Tate Britain where the announcement of The Chymical Wedding will be made. Plastique Fantastique avatars enter Tate Britain singing The Chymical Wedding hymn.

19.55 Third Protocol (contract)

We, (the communion of dead and eternal time), assemble in the The Octagon. The third thing (which is also the first thing) is called forth. All cry, “Welcome third thing”, to summon forth, through projected image, an angel who will impart knowledge of the third thing.

20.10 Forth Protocol (consummation)

We, (the end of the line and the circle of time), will lead the avatar third thing to the North Duveen to be whipped until the body is a swarm without a chain of command, summoning forth, through projected image, an angel who will impart knowledge of The Chymical Wedding.