Video: Ladytron at Tate Liverpool
Ladytron's performance was collected as part of the cheapcream series. This footage captures Ladytron performing in the assume vivid astro focus installation at Tate Liverpool on May 18, 2005. The overall project at Tate Liverpool was called Butch Queen Realness with a Twist in Pastel Colours Video Show, a name taken from the title of the film at the centre of the installation. From 23 April to 23 October 2005 assume vivid astro focus took over the large ground floor space of Tate Liverpool, a single room gallery that was transformed into a multi-screen projection room and performance space. Using extensive digital collage motifs to cover the walls and a configuration of interior walls to provided more intimate internal space, projections of edited film footage and suitably venue-like low light also provided the mood. Footage for each projection was drawn from little-known, or hard to access music videos, television footage, nightclub film footage and artist videos representing many aspects of performance in popular culture. Read avaf's extensive 'To Do' research list in the ephemera section for the best clues to the content and context of his references. The visuals which infuse this particular video clip were programmed live by video artist and regular Ladytron collaborator, Jackie Passmore, fused with avaf's film 'bqrwatipc' (Butch Queen Realness with a Twist in Pastel Colours Video Show) functioning as a parallel backdrop. Ladytron, originally all Liverpool-based and who retain close links with the city, are a revered modernist-styled four-piece band who made an international reputation as electro pop artists. Carnivaleque avaf paper masks made for the project–encouragement for another level of participation from the audience- are also pictured in the ephemera section being modelled with determination by a couple of game London publicans.
Ladytron's performance was collected as part of the cheapcream series. This footage captures Ladytron performing in the assume vivid astro focus installation at Tate Liverpool on May 18, 2005. The overall project at Tate Liverpool was called Butch Queen Realness with a Twist in Pastel Colours Video Show, a name taken from the title of the film at the centre of the installation. From 23 April to 23 October 2005 assume vivid astro focus took over the large ground floor space of Tate Liverpool, a single room gallery that was transformed into a multi-screen projection room and performance space. Using extensive digital collage motifs to cover the walls and a configuration of interior walls to provided more intimate internal space, projections of edited film footage and suitably venue-like low light also provided the mood. Footage for each projection was drawn from little-known, or hard to access music videos, television footage, nightclub film footage and artist videos representing many aspects of performance in popular culture. Read avaf's extensive 'To Do' research list in the ephemera section for the best clues to the content and context of his references. The visuals which infuse this particular video clip were programmed live by video artist and regular Ladytron collaborator, Jackie Passmore, fused with avaf's film 'bqrwatipc' (Butch Queen Realness with a Twist in Pastel Colours Video Show) functioning as a parallel backdrop. Ladytron, originally all Liverpool-based and who retain close links with the city, are a revered modernist-styled four-piece band who made an international reputation as electro pop artists. Carnivaleque avaf paper masks made for the project–encouragement for another level of participation from the audience- are also pictured in the ephemera section being modelled with determination by a couple of game London publicans.
cheapcream is a guest-edited series of video clips captured and collated by the artist assume vivid astro focus (avaf). It is made up of short pieces of footage shot at a variety of performances in many venues worldwide over the last year or so. Each captured by avaf, the footage covers drag acts, artists' performances in galleries, bands playing events and documentation of some of his own work. The clips are an ongoing record of others' performances, and the series offers insight into the world of an avid observer and collector of such. cheapcream also represents access into the ideas that inform or might become assumed by such a practice as avaf’s, and an invitation to be engaged in this ongoing work in progress.
avaf is an artist moniker that is used in the spirit of an inclusive, often collaborative, artistic practice. avaf operates as part of the legacy of artists such as Canadian collective General Idea who have consistently worked across a variety of media to communicate political ideas about queer identity and politics. cheapcream comprises a selection of avaf's ever-growing personal film archive, presented as a resource that is there to be shared. As part of his larger practice and part of a research process–a distinction avaf doesn't make–it is an enthusiastic sharing of what he considers public material.