Abstract/Summary

The project consists of a trilogy of films and a live performance. The Future trilogy takes IKEA riot of 2005 as the starting point for a speculative history of a fictional future, culminating in a choreographed re-enactment of the original event. Shot on 16mm and 8mm film, the series explores the possibility of collective action emerging from the capitalist relations inherent in the consumer riot. The live performance No Haus Like Bau, staged at the HAU 1 theatre in Berlin for the 5th Berlin Biennale, continues this research into re-enactment and post-1989 politics by dramatizing the rise and fall of the soviet union as a neo-Constructivist mime using a stage set made of flatpack furniture. Using the aesthetics of Modernism and the avant garde, from Constructivist and Futurist constumes to biomechanics and Bauhaus theatre theory, the project transposes early twentieth century utopian ideology to a present day setting where mass uprisings are motivated by cheap commodities. These explorations of consumerism and revolution have been widely exhibited internationally and supported by Film London, Arts Council England, Collective Gallery and the Berlin Biennale. The Future Trilogy formed the basis of a solo exhibition at the Te Tuhi Art Centre in Auckland, New Zealand and was screened as part of the Signal and Noise media art festival in Vancouver, as well as other exhibitions and screenings including “Roll it to Me” at Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, and Apocatopia, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.