Phil Collins, The world won't listen, courtesy the artist and Kerlin Gallery

17 September – 29 October 2005
Phil Collins
yeah..... you, baby you

Brutal and touching, nauseating and heartening in equal measure the images of Phil Collins came to firstsite in the Autumn of 2005.

And as expected the renowned artist's central interests of communities and conflict were presented through the searing light of the lens in this, his most comprehensive exhibition to date.

Through his work Collins investigates the perils of representation and the emotional core of photography and video.

Star of the exhibition was Collins' remarkable two-screen video
installation they shoot horses, 2004.

For this work Collins went to Ramallah, Palestine, where he auditioned a number of young people to participate in an 8 hour 'disco-dance marathon'. The resulting film is by turns energetic, amusing, beguiling and moving, the dancing interrupted only by the call to prayer from a nearby mosque, power cuts, and technical problems.

The work is about surrealism and collapse, heroism and exploitation and the cabin fever mentality generated by eight hours of repetitive action.

Many visitors to firstsite felt compelled to join in with the dancing before watching some karaoke...........

Made during a recent trip to Colombia, the world won't listen 2005) is karaoke machine made for fans of The Smiths in Bogotá. Working with local musicians, Collins re-recorded the backing tracks of the entire album (from 'Panic' to 'Golden Lights') and after a city-wide campaign filmed sixty singers over three days. The resulting film was intense and hilarious.

Collins has exhibited widely in venues such as Wexner Centre for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Espacio la Rebeca, Bogotá; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Modern Art, Oxford; Tate Britain, London; Barbican Centre, London; Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast; The Wrong Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; and PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York. This year Collins will be participating in the 9th Istanbul Biennial.

The show at firstsite was the third stage of the exhibition's tour around Europe after opening at Milton Keynes Gallery earlier in the year.

A Milton Keynes Gallery Touring Exhibition

Download Phil Collins Teachers' Tools (180kb Word doc)

 

 

Student Review
Captured People
Dispel your preconceived conceptions of video art. Watch, listen and experience the sensational brand of art by Phil Collins at firstsite.

In his art, Collins takes absolute pleasure in recreating the emotions felt by people in the world’s isolated pockets of disturbing socio-political situations, from Palestine, Kosovo, Iraq and Northern Ireland. Collins has used the human body as a vehicle to channel the emotions direct to the viewer, catching our attention with the honesty of human flesh. His work is produced at a face value level, using friends, lovers and strangers he meets on his journeys from country to country, using their bodies to produce something that would display their own inward and outward emotions to their personal situations. These situations are given to us in dance, pop music or even through the use of a karaoke machine, creating a sense of humor on the backdrop of an unforgettable way of living. This touch of humor in Collins work gives it the sense of humanity needed to bring it closer to us, allowing us to engage with the work, pushing us to then acknowagade the real message of the work, the display of optimism and defiance in the face of danger and it is here that the viewer is immediately aware that the work on offer is ultimately about human courage, not weakness. Phil Collins work demonstrates and gives to us the spectacle of humans, the spectacle of ourselves we can’t help but watch in awe. The emotions shown will seem distant, but with the events of London over the past few months in mind, they will seem uncompromisingly familiar when viewed and understood. This exhibition should not be missed as it will certainly strike a cord in us all, from human subject to human viewer.

This brilliantly original way of working has given Collins his own medium in representing the contempory issues of today in a way which will compel and thrill. Watch it, listen to it and experience it.

Terry Thurston