Harry Bix

A night of ‘alright, hows it going?’ with East Anglia Records and friends at SET, Mar 30

9 March 2017

The East Anglia Records and friends exhibition is on at London’s SET, opening March 30 and running to April 5.

London-based collective East Anglia Records is hosting a night of ‘alright, hows it going?’ to mark the beginning of their exhibition, featuring work by members Sarah Boulton, Fred Duffield, James Lowne, Ulijona Odišarija (Sweatlana), Harriet Rickard and Harry Bix.

The exhibition space will take the form of a room conceived by Odišarija and built by East Anglia Records, where Duffield will perform on the opening evening amongst the other works, along with the screening of a new film by Harriet Rickard. 

See the East Anglia Records website for details.**

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Oddly Drawn Object @ Haunt Gallery, Oct 26 – Nov 27

24 October 2016

The Oddly Drawn Object group exhibition is on at London’s Haunt gallery, opening October 26 and running to November 27.

Curated by Rebecca Dick, the show features work by Anna Reading, Lotte Scott and Hattie Moore, with a music take over from East Anglia Records.

Bringing together print, sculpture and video, the works re-imagine the properties of objects, and the potential for shift into an “unusual form, growing or melting or seemingly formless, reminiscent of the organic and translated between dimensions.”

The opening night will be host to DJ Sets by (the headliner) Papa Limes with old school hip-hop, a selection by Sweatlana, “rhythm and disappointment” with DJ H.Bix  and ‘Songs to remember’ by P Flouncy.

See the Haunt gallery website for details.**

https://vimeo.com/160599127

 

 

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Rhythm and Disappointment launch @ Chalton Gallery, Jul 31

29 July 2016

East Anglia Records is launching a new compilation, Rhythm and Disappointment at London’s Chalton Gallery on July 31.

The album, featuring Benedict Drew, Ziad Nagy, Katarzyna Perlak, and Ruth Waters, among others, will become available for download on the night at the East Anglia Records bandcamp. There will also be performances at the gallery by Leo Nibz, Madeleine Stack, Nadja Voorham and Mark William Lewis in rooms designed by Fred Duffield and Ulijona Odišarija.

The music label and self-proclaimed ‘originator’ of the term ‘Rhythm & Disappointment’ (R&D), founded by artist Harry Bix, began as a series of music performance nights at Slade School of Art in 2015. The project, revolving around the notion of “wanting more and giving up”, has since put on a number of other events and released a handful of compilations, including one in parallel with the NO SCREENING performance at London’s ICA in collaboration with with artist Cristine Brache and SOUNDS LIKE.

See the FB event page for details.**

Harry Bix. Courtesy East Anglia Records.
Harry Bix. Courtesy East Anglia Records, London.
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MID-WEEK DADS @ Greyfriars Art Space, Sep 17 – 18

17 September 2015

Norfolk’s Greyfriars Art Space opens a new exhibition and text by Harry Bix, titled MID-WEEK DADS and running September 17 and September 18.

The solo exhibition presents Bix’s relationship with “Norfolk, sports, men and sausage rolls via anecdotal sculpture, memoir and the excesses of indulgence”.

The Slade School of Fine Art student recently organized the Mark II exhibition in May and follows it up with a solo show. Little info has been released about the nature or theme of the exhibition, other than its bizarre but intriguing title.

See the exhibition page for details. **

Mark II (2015). Exhibition view.
Mark II (2015). Exhibition view.
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Stalking Mark II

3 June 2015

You’re standing in a small parking lot. You’re being handed a photocopied sheet of paper. Handwritten in black marker, it lists twelve artists and areas of a car that have been assigned to them to respond to with a work in the Mark II exhibition. Air vents. Car keys. Ashtray, Maintenance, Hubcaps, Glove compartment. Rear window wiper. Sunscreen. Back seat. Stereo. Bumper.

You read the words on the sheet of paper and you look at the car. The car is a silver Nissan Micra, its ignition is on and its doors are open. It looks as if something debauched has happened and the owner ran away leaving the car as a recently deceased person leaves their home: all things intact and in mid-use as if they could be coming back any second to re-engage with the space. It’s like you’re part of a forensics team at the scene of a crime trying to determine what’s happened, or a voyeur that has come across an abandoned unlocked car in a parking lot, deciding to satiate your desire by looking deeply and maybe getting close enough to smell. You are the memory of the car and you are flashing back, revisiting every possible thing the car has ever experienced at once.

Fred Duffield, 'Hubcaps' (2015).
Fred Duffield, ‘Hubcaps’ (2015). Install view.

You begin to look for the objects in the car listed on the paper that now functions as a map. You’re in search of distinction as the art work seamlessly integrates into the car’s natural domain. A closer look is required to gain more insight into the curious narrative you’ve just stepped into. Perhaps these are some of the things organiser Harry Bix, whose choice of artist in relation to component parts seems carefully considered, wants us to feel.

The stereo spews self help. People in the car park are being told to “try ritual purification with wet wipes.”  It’s speaking on behalf of Ulijona Odišarija who produces an eerie lo-fi mix tape called Revival 2015 that loops misshapen beats and chants, dedicated -isms that promise to change your life and make it better: “and if you need forgiveness in the present time just visualise that happening / do you want to party or cry? / Find that special place inside you where you feel no shame”.

Mary Vettise, assigned the car’s bumper, rebrands the Micra with her last name, “Vettise”, in cursive on its right side just above the silver “S” that denotes some special unknown attribute to the Micra. It’s a pun that doesn’t really make sense to most people; an inside joke as the artist says her last name is commonly misspelled “Vitesse”, which is french for ‘speed’ and often confused with the Rover make and model of the same name. The back seat of the car is full of cold medicine boxes and empty bottles of energy drinks left by James Lowne.  A love letter rests on top of this pile explaining why he couldn’t be there. He is ill and sorry because he only thinks of you. Cristine Brache occupies a masculine object with feminine material by cutting a house key out of mother of pearl with the words “nothing but violence” engraved on it. The key hangs from the keychain, attached to the car key that powers the ignition.

The evening is comprised of three performances by Lea Collet and Marios Stamatis (maintenance) who dedicatedly wash the car, Sarah Boulton (air vents) reads poetry inside the car alone, leaving her audience with a powerful silence outside.  They remain completely quiet, even though they can’t hear a thing. Boulton’s performance is, as she puts it, “fragrance-based”, challenging the audience’s expectations and desires by denying them access to her words, rendering herself mute. A few minutes into her reading people walk up to the car to put their ears near the window in an attempt to eavesdrop. Alex Carmichael concludes the evening by hotboxing the car in exaggerated form with a smoke bomb, fading it out of your voyeuristic gaze with the thick cloud. The stereo urges you to “say fast slowly”. You turn around and walk away but take this last mantra with you, whispering the word ‘fast’ very, very slowly. **

Exhibition photos, top-right.

Mark II was a one-day group exhibition at Woburn Square Gardens Car Park on May 27, 2015.

Header image: Sarah Boulton, ‘Air vents’ (2015).  Performance view.

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