Beatrice Gibson: Crone Music

With Basma Alsharif, Adam Christensen, CAConrad, Laurence Crane, Maria Palacios Cruz, Diocouda Diaoune, Nick Gordon, Obie Gordon, Eileen Myles, Alice Notley, Ben Rivers and Ana Vaz.

Crone Music presents two new, interconnected films by Franco-British artist Beatrice Gibson (b. 1978), alongside an expanded events programme featuring the artists, poets, musicians and wider community with whom the films have been made. Borrowing its title from American composer Pauline Oliveros’ 1990 album of the same name, the exhibition seeks out an explicitly feminist lineage through which to recast the syncretic, collective and participatory nature of Gibson’s practice.

Deux Soeurs Qui Ne Sont Pas Soeurs (Two Sisters Who Are Not Sisters) (2019) is based on Gertrude Stein’s eponymously named screen play, written in 1929 as European fascism was building momentum. Gibson’s adaptation, set almost a century later in contemporary Paris, deploys Stein’s script as a talismanic guide through a moment of comparable social and political unrest. Staging various forms of duality and revision, the characters themselves become a meditation on uncertain or unstable states. Gibson explores feminism not only as subject matter, but as method, casting the film’s characters from a close network of friends and practitioners, alongside others who have supported or influenced her. Both a fictional thriller and an act of collective representation, the film features a commissioned soundtrack by British composer Laurence Crane, written before the film was made and in response to the repetition and doubling at play in Stein’s script. 

I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead (2018) was conceived as a companion piece, exploring poetry, disobedience and kinship. The title comes from a poem by CAConrad and begins as a portrait of Conrad and Eileen Myles, two of the US’s most significant living poets. The work was filmed on the eve of the 45th presidential inauguration in January 2017 and Gibson continued to shoot through the following year in America and Europe, weaving together CAConrad and Myles’ words with those of fellow poets Audre Lorde (1934–1992), Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) and Alice Notley (b. 1945), alongside intimate moments with her family. Accompanied by a Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016) soundtrack, the film is a deeply personal work, one which seeks out the power of ritual, casting the poet as a prophet navigating an alternative path in times of perilous authority.

Alongside the films, Crone Music will present an expanded programme of readings, screenings, performances, talks, workshops, meetings and residencies led by the films’ participants. Rooted in feminist and queer discourse, these include: a poetry reading by Alice Notley; a Radical Read-In with Eileen Myles; one-to-one Personalized (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals with CAConrad; a week of experimental music composition and concerts with Laurence Crane, drawing on the work of Pauline Oliveros and Eliane Radigue; screenings by Basma Alsharif, Maria Palacios Cruz, Ben Rivers and Ana Vaz; a performance by Adam Christensen; and an afternoon of mayhem hosted by Gibson’s 5-year-old son, Obie. Hosted in Camden Art Centre’s Gallery 3, the space has been devised by Gibson in collaboration with friend and architect Dominic Cullinan, to reflect the artists production ethos, calling upon friends and neighbours to furnish the room.

The space also hosts a rolling screening programme, curated by Gibson, bringing together moving image works by filmmakers, friends and mentors from whom Gibson has drawn inspiration, including Chantal Akerman, Basma Alsharif, Ute Aurand and Ulrike Pfeiffer, Mati Diop, Barbara Hammer, Laida Lertxundi, Public Access Poetry, Leslie Thornton and Ana Vaz.

Working at the intersection of art, feminism, expanded cinema, experimental literature and film, Crone Music explores friendship, feeling, empathy and solidarity as tools for individual and collective agency in an ever more unsettled world.

The exhibition is a collaboration of Camden Arts Centre, Bergen Kunsthall and Borealis – a festival for experimental music. I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead is commissioned by Camden Arts Centre, Bergen Kunsthall, KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Mercer Union, with support from Julia Stoschek Collection, Outset Germany_Switzerland and Arts Council Norway. Deux Soeurs Qui Ne Sont Pas Soeurs is commissioned by Camden Arts Centre, Bergen Kunsthall, Borealis – a festival for experimental music and Mercer Union, with support from Fluxus Art Projects, Arts Council England and the Beatrice Gibson Producers’ Circle: Candida Gertler OBE, Diane Silverthorne and Tom Woo. The film features a score by Laurence Crane commissioned with support from Arts Council Norway.

Collaborators Programme
For more information and to book, please visit camdenartscentre.org

Wednesday, January 30, 7pm
The Machine That Kills Bad People at Institute of Contemporary Arts
Artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers curates an evening of films including work by Gunver Nelson, Margaret Tait, and Chick Strand. The Machine That Kills Bad People is an artist-curated film club screening bi-monthly at the ICA.

Saturday, February 2, 7:30pm
The Music of Eliane Radigue
Angharad Davies (violin), Julia Eckhardt (viola) and Dominic Lash (double bass) perform pieces written especially for them by French composer, Eliane Radigue. Radigue is known for her pioneering minimalist drone-like electronic works, influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.

February 5–9, 3–6pm daily
Laurence Crane with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Laurence Crane leads experimental music workshops with students from Guildhall, rehearsing scores by composers including John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, Mary Jane Leach, Amber Priestley, John Lely, Christian Wolff and Pauline Oliveros. An informal performance will take place each day.

Wednesday, February 6, 7pm
Performance by Anton Lukoszevieze, followed by In-Conversation
Cellist Anton Lukoszevieze gives a short solo performance, including "Raimondas Rumsas," composed for Lukoszevieze by Crane in 2002. Following the performance, Gibson and Crane discuss their collaborative processes.

Saturday, February 9, 7:30pm
The Music of Laurence Crane and Pauline Oliveros
Live performances of works by Crane and Oliveros, with musicians Manuel Zurria (flutes and electronics) and Mark Knoop (piano) exploring portraiture, repetition and "the copy."

Wednesday, February 13, 7pm
Alice Notley, Poetry Reading
A selection of readings by poet, Alice Notley.

February 12–14
Rubbish & Nasty
Filmmaker, Nick Gordon and music journalist, Ian McQuaid take up residence for four consecutive days of writing and story development of Rubbish & Nasty, a feature film set in London’s early noughties squat rave scene. Screening time to be announced.

Wednesday, February 20, 7pm
Filming in the Dark
Artist and filmmaker Ana Vaz curates an evening of films expanding temporal and geographic relationships in her ongoing project, The Voyage Out. The project investigates the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident and the birth of a new land in Japan’s Pacific south. Films include recent works by the artist as well Lis Rhodes, Sandra Lahire and Judith Noble.

Saturday, March 2, 3–5pm
She Begins to Re-Read. Films and Texts by Alice Guy and Lis Rhodes
An evening of screenings and readings of texts by French film pioneer Alice Guy and British artist and filmmaker Lis Rhodes, with an introduction by Felicity Sparrow. Beatrice Gibson and others will read selected texts from Rhodes’ forthcoming anthology Telling Invents Told (The Visible Press, 2019). Programmed by María Palacios Cruz. In collaboration with LUX.

Sunday, March 3, 2–5pm
An Afternoon of Mayhem with Obie
Gibson’s 5-year-old son Obie, hosts an afternoon of mayhem. “We will be making a cardboard city out of boxes, and underneath that a network of tunnels that we can crawl through; we will put on poodle and wrestling masks so we look super ridiculous and do some mega mischievous things. There’ll be a dance party.” Suitable for children of all ages.

Saturday, March 16, 4–6pm
Radical Read-In with Eileen Myles and CAConrad
Myles and CAConrad invite you to bring reading materials and join them for this collective silent reading, bringing together a community of people through shared individual experience. Inspired by LGBT collective LTTR.

March 19–23, 1–4pm daily (except Wednesday), 
Personalised (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals, with CAConrad
CAConrad has successfully used (Soma)tic poetry rituals to overcome depression after the murder of their boyfriend Earth. Through bookable one-to-one sessions, CAConrad will offer a personalised ritual based on the consideration of various factors in your life.

Wednesday, March 20, 7pm
Two Poets Talking
A public conversation between Eileen Myles and CAConrad where they will share their poems and ideas.

Friday, March 22, 7pm
Poetry Readings at Burley Fischer Books                                                                               Poetry readings off-site at Burley Fisher Books with Eileen Myles, CAConrad and special guests.

Saturday, March 23, 12–2pm
Write-In, with Eileen Myles
Anyone who is interested in writing in concert with other people should bring work materials and an urge to practice in the vicinity of other thinking writing bodies. No show and tell. This is strictly for dreamy and real private writing production.

Wednesday, March 27, 7pm
This World is Strange
This World is Strange is a series of workshops by Basma Alsharif and Philip Risk held in Cairo and Amman. Drawing from works by filmmakers, writers and musicians working outside of Occidental hegemony, they engage in experimental translation processes to make films accessible for Arabic speakers. 

Friday, March 29, 7pm
Performance by Adam Christensen
A neglected wife, some years into her lousy marriage, is advised by her friends to find satisfaction with new blood. A biographical performance taking place on a catwalk and stairs designed for the occasion and as an extension to the artist’s house.