Ace Hotel x Moog Sound Lab // Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
Who: Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.
Where are they from: North via South England (defied the divide).
What they get up to: longstanding artistic practitioners of the intangible arts, filmmakers, music fans, devoid of genre barriers.
A bit more background: Born in the north of England – Iain in Manchester and Jane in Newcastle – the pair were brought together in South London at Goldsmiths College, where they both studied Fine Art and Art Theory. Striking up a friendship led to close collaboration; with initial projects including the physical realness of Words & Pictures, ‘an art magazine in a box’ featuring contributions from David Shrigley and early work by Tracey Emin.
Later on, they rewired their brains to film, putting the illusion of cinema on the crossroads with presence of theatre. Highlighted works include the live and meticulously detailed recreation of David Bowie’s last performance as Ziggy Stardust with A Rock’N’Roll Suicide, which ran two sold-out nights at the ICA. The duo also stake claim to the first screen appearance of Ben Drew (aka rapper Plan B) in the council block corridor evoking Walking After Acconci, where Drew talks rapidly to the camera as if its his lover, riding the outpours of a tangled romance. The completion of their first feature film 20,000 Days on Earth came last year, a ficto-bio of Nick Cave. Through their chance encounter, Iain and Jane have spent over 20 years working together professionally; weaving together performance, music culture and notable collaborations.
What to expect from the performance: We couldn’t describe it any better than the master of Moog Sound Lab, Paul Smith: “This time the film is going to be INSIDE your head! What kind of spirits will they conjure up for you in your eyes wide shut brain cinema? What sonic trips will they unleash with the mighty Moog's – a non-musician's perfect scrying stone”.
Not tied solely to music, you can expect a few curveballs from Iain and Jane, including flurries of spoken word performances and specially distilled gin for ticket holders. All this observed, it will be a crescendo of collaborative bumps with personality seeping from the stage in Miranda, helped along by the Dream Machines whizzing you off into another dimension. Eyes closed for utopia.
Check out what else is coming this month in the Moog Sound Lab takeover of Ace Hotel here.
Iain and Jane join the dots of music and performance on August 17th at Miranda (tickets).
