The Mirror will show in its theatrical form at Recombinant Festival, San Francisco at the end November/beginning December 2018 – specific date to be confirmed nearer the time, but here’s a heads up about the festival in the meantime!
Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us returns to Sucata Tapes with another epic radio collage from the archives. You can buy the cassette (with a digital download included from us or Discrepant, and if you want just the digital download then get direct form Discrepant.
“The work of People Like Us rests gingerly between two dangerous positions: on the one hand, the risk of fashioning merely stylish pastiche out of borrowed finery for the sake of self-conscious kitschiness; on the other hand, the risk of making simplistic, heavy handedly “topical” audio-jokes at the expense of one’s raw material to a smug effect. If the lounge creeps uncritically snack on their sonic ingredients and coast on being “groovy”, the cads of pseudo-critique take cheap shots at straw men and call it subversion. Happily, Vicki Bennett has yet to fall down either precipice, but yodels down contentedly from her own Alpine audio-cottage. There, with loving care, she snips and tucks at the lycra jumpsuit until the fit is snug, places every plastic shrub on the Happy Valley Ranch just so, and throws another dance record on the bonfire. Undercutting her own utopian mirages with formal breakdowns and sneaky semantic pranks, Vicki Bennett is One Funny Lady, with a deadly sense of comic timing that puts her in my personal pantheon of edit intensive music makers: -Steinski and Mass Media, Hank Shocklee, Tod Dockstader, Teo Macero, the Hanatarash, John Oswald, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock. Serving her birthday cake with a turd, her gags are always lined with a virulent creep factor. You get the feeling that the vacancy and pointlessness of empty speech is being lampooned and mourned in equal measure. In sticking to this balance of celebration and critique, People Like Us genuinely hates and loves People Like You. The least you can do is head up to the Happy Valley Ranch for a spell and have a listen.” – Drew Daniel
People Like Us interview and movie screening
Friday 21 September 2018
2pm NY time
on WFMU online and on the radio in the NY area
Yes, it’s possible to do such a thing on WFMU! The Mirror will screen in full in theatrical movie format on the front page of the WFMU.org website with simultaneous radio broadcast on Bryce’s Show on Friday 21 September 2018 at 2pm NY time. The video will not be archived so you’ll need to view it there and then. http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/bk
People Like Us will have two pieces, The Sound of the End of Music and 4’33” The Movie in a group exhibition called in at Kunstmuseum Magdeburg. http://www.kunstmuseum-magdeburg.de/de/ausstellungen/vorschau.html
Ámbitus. Art and music today | 8.9.2018 – 6.1.2019
The fact that visual arts and music do not have to be separate worlds shows from September 9th at the Magdeburg Art Museum. For a few decades, artists have been exploring or transcending the transitions and spaces between these two arts. Today, video and performance artists equally use existing and newly composed music as musicians and composers have begun to make their compositions visually tangible. And of course there are also exciting cooperations between the two fields.
People Like Us are giving Spectacle Theater over three hours of films to screen at their 27 seater cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!
TICKETS – get them in advance because it’s a small cinema!
Spectacle is a collectively run screening space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, established and staffed entirely by hard working, cinema-loving volunteers. Spectacle is located at 124 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, New York, between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street.
http://www.spectacletheater.com/vicki-bennett-two-nights-with-people-like-us/
There will be 3 collections of PLU movies shown, listed below. Bear in mind this is a 27 seater cinema and it may sell out. $5 Tickets here.
A retrospective of the audio-visual collage artist People Like Us (Vicki Bennett), featuring the theatrical versions of THE MIRROR (U.S. Premiere) and CITATION CITY (NYC Premiere).
At the forefront of audio-visual collage since 1991, British artist People Like Us (Vicki Bennett) is a pioneer in the editing of archival material sourced from popular film and music. Her dense, recontextualized odysseys forge new multilayered associations, resulting in a psychedelic trip that recalls the wild tangents of the brain’s own pathways. The first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive, Bennett has also collaborated with such artists as Matmos, Christian Marclay, and members of Negativland. She also hosts the ongoing radio show, ‘DO or DIY’ on WFMU.
Spectacle is excited to present the U.S. premiere of the theatrical version of People Like Us’s latest project, THE MIRROR. Using the mirror in film as a device for both inward and outward reflection, Bennett unleashes a flurry of reworked sounds and images that flow in and out of one another to kaleidoscopic effect. Spectacle will also be presenting the NYC premiere of the theatrical version of CITATION CITY, a collage-edit of over 300 feature films either shot or set in London. Bennett draws inspiration from The Arcades Project, Walter Benjamin’s study of Paris, by bringing collective cinematic associations of London together, resulting in a dizzying journey through multiple narratives.
“Her films are an audiovisual overload, full of startling juxtapositions and wry humour, and rich in details that emerge with repeated viewing.” – Emily Bick, The Wire
“I see what I do as folk art in the age of digital reproduction: I’m working with the palette of the time.” – Vicki Bennett
“As the images unwind, like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.” – “The Windmills of Your Mind” by Michel Legrand
We Are Not Amused (2013) (3:00)
25 Years of People Like Us (Special Edit) (31:00)
Including:
The Sound of the End of Music (2010)
Bridge (2012)
Here Come The Occupants (2012)
Zoom (2012)
Mirrors (2012)
Shopping (2014)
Jump (2012)
Eve Of Sunshine (2012)
The Mirror (2018) (36:00) – U.S. PREMIERE!
Gone, Gone Beyond (Trailer) (2018) (3:19)
Citation City (2015) (40:00) – NYC PREMIERE!
Magical Misery Tour (Special Edit) (2011) (30:00)
The Zone (Trailer) (2012) (3:45)
The Sound of the End of Music (2010) (3:38)
The Golem – An Inanimate Matter (2013) (2:49)
Spinning (with Ergo Phizmiz) (2010) (3:34)
Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another) (Special Edit) (2012) (18:21)
The Mirror (2018) (36:00) – U.S. PREMIERE!
PEOPLE LIKE US “THE MIRROR”
LIMITED EDITION (500) CD & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
Cutting Hedge SNIP002 (available initially mailorder only from us)
RELEASE DATE 1 OCTOBER 2018
We are now taking orders for a brand new People Like Us album! This will be available as both a CD and also digital download. If you purchase the CD it will come with the digital download for free.
This album contains all new audio work, sourced from both our live a/v performance The Mirror [2018], and also from Gone, Gone Beyond [2017+], our ongoing 360 surround cinema work. It also contains additional tracks composed during the creation of these pieces that never were used.
We are joined on two tracks by Ergo Phizmiz, and the packaging has artwork from the above works and also specially made for the CD. Two collages are made in collaboration with other artists Peter Knight and Hearty White. The CD was mastered by Mark Gergis.
Order directly from us now by Paypal:
If you would prefer just as a digital download please click below:
PEOPLE LIKE US 19:00 + CARTER TUTTI 20:00
£10, £15 double bill with Carter Tutti. Also part of SPILL Passes
Tickets: https://spillfestival.com/show/the-mirror/
As you may have seen in other posts, we are making Gone, Gone Beyond, a 360 surround sound and seamless projection piece for Recombinant Media Labs Cinechamber. It has been screened once at Recombinant Festival in 2017, this was the 40 minute version. We are now expanding the work to be an hour long and it will be available for screening (contained in Cinechamber, which is available for hire) in 2019.
We are pleased to announce a new audiovisual immersive cinema performance by People Like Us called The Mirror, performed from March 2018 worldwide.
The Mirror is a live a/v performance which splices together movie snippets with unique sample-based music exploring the masks that we wear represented through the lens, using parallel narratives across the screen to depict an ever-changing stream, rather than a singular, fixed being, narrative or moment in time.
“A feat of research and craft, this new work is a spellbinding inquiry into editing and juxtaposition; a collage one can unthread allowing the viewer to discover hidden stories through familiar images. The soundtrack is performed live, made up from hundreds of preexisting songs, as well as particular sounds from the original film clips.” — Flatpack Film Festival
18 March 2018 – World Premiere: Athens Greek Film Archive Foundation (as part of Shadow Libraries: UbuWeb in Athens, organised and produced by the Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens) – tickets/info
13 April 2018 – UK Premiere: Liverpool FACT – tickets
17 April 2018 – Belfast Film Festival at Crescent Arts Centre – tickets
20 April 2018 – London Cafe Oto – tickets
21 April 2018 – Birmingham Flatpack Festival – tickets
12 May 2018 – London Splice Festival, at Rich Mix – tickets
11 July 2018 – London Cafe Oto, double bill with Carl Stone – tickets
19 July 2018 – Gijón LEV Arenas Movedizas – free entry
26 July 2018 – MACBA, Barcelona – tickets
17th September 2018 – Theatrical Screening (not live) – Bryce’s Show on WFMU
19th & 20th September 2018 – Theatrical Screening (not live) – Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn – tickets
6 October 2018 – Oviedo (details to be announced imminently)
20 October 2018 – 100 Years of Copyright Festival, Berlin HKW – tickets
2 November 2018 – Spill Festival, Ipswich – tickets
10 November 2018 – Norway (details later)
15 November 2018 – Brighton (details later)
November 2018 – Theatrical Screening (not live) Recombinant Festival, San Francisco (date tbc) – tickets
If you are a festival organiser with a budget and are interested in booking this, please get in touch by way of our Contact Form. If you are in a country requiring a work visa to perform we can in very special circumstances make this work into a stand alone movie, but generally this is only available as a performance with the artist present and you will need to gain necessary papers for us to agree.
Shortcut url is http://peoplelikeus.org/themirror.html
People Like Us at MACBA, Barcelona
People Like Us at MACBA, Barcelona
PLU at Splice Festival 2018 – photo by Martyna Kubrak
PLU at Splice Festival 2018 – photo by Martyna Kubrak
Supporting works and articles (being added to over the coming months)
The Mirror CD contains some music from The Mirror, and other works
3 artist commissions coming soon reflections upon The Mirror by Dina Kelberman, Mark Gergis and Hearty White
Graham Duff – The Mirror a reflection upon the work and surrounding subject matter
Interview in The Wire Magazine in a phone conversation with Emily Bick of The Wire Magazine, Vicki Bennett reflects on The Mirror, Gone, Gone Beyond, and working with preexisting footage.
New longer trailer, Summer 2018: https://vimeo.com/peoplelikeus/beyond
“Hey, hey, have you ever tried… reaching out to the other side?”
Gone, Gone Beyond is an immersive a/v spatial cinema work by People Like Us, which breaks the rectangle, smashing the thin screen into tiny fragments, looking beyond the frame, climbing through to see what’s behind. It uses appropriated edited collage sewn together in a giant patchwork. Pull on a thread and watch whole new narratives expand and unravel all at once on a 360 palette.
The initial 47-minute film premiered in San Francisco 11-14 October 2017 at Recombinant Festival at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. We have been making this movie for Recombinant Media Labs own Cinechamber for quite some time now – it is a stand alone piece that you watch and listen to from the inside.
Stage 2 is currently in production through 2018 and we are looking for partners to present the hour-long piece from 2019 onwards.
Q&A with Hearty White: http://peoplelikeus.org/2017/gone-gone-beyond-qa/
The initial 47-minute film “GONE, GONE BEYOND” by People Like Us premiered in San Francisco 11-14 October 2017 at Recombinant Festival at Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. We have been making this movie for Recombinant Media Labs own Cinechamber for quite some time now – it is a stand alone piece that you watch and listen to from the inside. Stage 2 is currently in production through 2018 and we are looking for partners to present the hour-long piece from 2019 onwards.
People Like Us will perform The Mirror at Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt in Berlin on 20 October 2018 as part of their 100 Years of Copyright program.
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
People Like Us will perform The Mirror at MACBA in Barcelona as part of their Lorem Ipsum concert series.
26 July 2018 – 8.30 pm
Venue: Meier Building Auditorium, MACBA
Entrance fee : € 5. Free with Amic card. With prior registration. Limited capacity.
Tickets and further info
