Artist Statement: People Like Us

Photo credit: Polly Brown

Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been working across the field of audio-visual collage, repurposing pre-existing footage to craft audio and video collages with an equally dark and witty take on popular culture. She sees collage as folk art sourced from the palette of contemporary media and technology, with all of the sharing and cross-referencing incumbent to a populist form. Using collage as a compositional tool, Vicki Bennett opens up endless opportunities to experience results that are more than the sum of the parts.  Embedded in her work is the premise that all is interconnected and that claiming ownership of an “original” or isolated concept is both preposterous and redundant. 

In 2006 she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive. People Like Us have previously shown work at Tate Modern, Whitechapel Gallery, The Barbican, Centro de Cultura Digital, V&A, Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Pompidou Centre, Venice Biennale, Maxxi and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. The ongoing sound art radio show ‘DO or DIY’ on WFMU has had over a million “listen again” downloads. since 2003. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb.

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Longer Biography
Filmography
Exhibitions and Editions
Selected Performances and Screenings
Commissions and Awards
People Like Us on bandcamp
People Like Us on Patreon
Discography

Photo credit: Polly Brown

Christian Marclay’s Sounds of Christmas with People Like Us

Live at The Tate Modern, 18 December, as part of the Christian Marclay Exhibit) – 2004

The Sounds of Christmas is an annual project by Christian Marclay, pioneer of the experimental turntable movement and leading artist operating at the intersections of art and music. Reinventing this work-in-progress for London, the artist presented his collection of over 1,200 Christmas records as a publicly accessible archive in a special Thameside pavilion, alongside projections of the record covers and footage of previous performances. Combining blatant sentimentality with vanguard experimentation, Marclay suggests that the categories distinguishing ‘serious’ music from its opposite are both arbitrary and arcane. During the two-week installation, created live remixes of their own selection from Marclay’s Christmas records.

People Like Us perform Sounds of Christmas (live recording from desk)

Below are the raw tracks that People Like Us created from Christian Marclay’s record collection, to perform live at the event.

1. Rudolf’s Trumpet
2. Slay Bells
3. Do You Hear
4. Choich Bells
5. Fa La La La La La La
6. Holy Shit
7. Chestnuts
8. I’m Dreaming
9. I’m Dreaming Too
10. Santa Stuck
11. Jingle Bells 1
12. Jingle Bells 2
13. Santa Claus 1
14. Santa Claus 2
15. Silent Night
16. I’m…
17. I’m Backwards
18. My Favourite
19. Jingle Joy
20. Deck The Halls And Run To The Hills
21. Winter Wonderland


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