Thursday 3rd September – Sunday 6th September, 12 – 6pm
A collaborative sound work for computer and voice based on an interview with Latham in which he describes his theory of event structure and time-base.
The Body Event is a sound work for computer and voice made by David Toop in collaboration with John Latham in 2004. The resultant installation is made up entirely from Latham’s speech, vocal sounds, pauses, breathing, actions, room sounds, and ambient sounds from the street, extracted from an interview with the artist in which he describes his theory of event structure and time-base. The fragments of speech and paralinguistic noise are configured according to certain principles of Latham’s Theory and will be extruded through the house in the same way that Latham extruded books through glass in his work.
The Body Event was originally presented during Latham’s 2005 exhibition God is Great at Lisson Gallery, London. It will be reconfigured into a spatialised version for installation at the artist’s home.
David Toop first met Latham as a student at Hornsey College of Art; Latham had been invited by students to screen his 16mm films Talk Mr Bard (1961) and Speak (1962) as part of the late-night film shows held during the 1968 sit-in. Toop was later in the audience of an event called Float, at Middle Earth, a psychedelic club in Covent Garden, again probably in 1968, with performances by artists, including Latham, Peter Kuttner, Stuart Brisley, Bruce Lacey, and Carlyle Reedy. Toop was most impressed by Latham’s performance, cutting up books with a floor mounted saw. A contact microphone amplified the already violent noise from the saw. Toop later joined the Artist Placement Group along with Latham, Barbara Steveni, Barry Flanagan, David Hall and others.
David Toop is a musician, writer and sound curator. He has published four books, currently translated into six languages: Rap Attack (now in its third edition), Ocean of Sound, Exotica (selected as a winner of the 21st annual American Books Awards for 2000), and Haunted Weather. His first album, New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments, was released on Brian Eno’s Obscure label in 1975; since 1995 he has released seven solo albums and curated five acclaimed CD compilations for Virgin Records.
He has recorded shamanistic ceremonies in Amazonas, appeared on Top Of The Pops with the Flying Lizards, worked with musicians including Brian Eno, John Zorn, Prince Far I, Jon Hassell, Derek Bailey, Talvin Singh, Evan Parker, Max Eastley, Scanner, and Akio Suzuki, and collaborated with artists from many other disciplines, including theatre director/actor Steven Berkoff, Butoh dancer Mitsutaka Ishii, sound poet Bob Cobbing, visual artist John Latham, filmmaker Jae-eun Choi and novelist Jeff Noon. Toop is a Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom at the Hayward Gallery in 2000, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily Enough English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960-1977.
How to find FTHo:
Flat Time House, 210 Bellenden Road, London SE15 4BW
Closest BR Peckham Rye from London Bridge or Victoria stations. Buses to
Peckham Library or Rye Lane.
More information can be found at www.flattimeho.org.uk
