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| 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' (Exterior), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, October 2016 |
Having shone a spotlight on (literally), the darkest corners of Bill Drummond’s creative practice - earlier in the year, it seems only fair to mention his erstwhile KLF colleague, and fellow art provocateur, Jimmy Cauty. The chance came the other day, with the touchdown in Nottingham of his ‘Aftermath Dislocation Principle’ project, and personal appearance at New Art Exchange.
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| Jimmy Cauty, 2016 |
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| Jimmy Cauty/L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' 2014 |
For those not in
the know, ‘ADP’, is an extensive, 1:87
scale diorama, placed within a shipping container, and viewed in intriguing
glimpses through multiple peepholes in the steel walls. The scene represented is a tract of
contemporary urban, landscape – based, according to Cauty, on an imagined
version of Bedford. It feels like a kind
of notional, Middle England ‘everytown’, and it’s certainly true that, of all
the cities in Britain - Bedford is one I have absolutely no distinguishing
mental image of.
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| Jimmy Cauty/L-13Light Industrial Workshop, 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle', 2014 |
What really
distinguishes this landscape however, is not the topography itself - but the
fact that it describes the dystopian aftermath of some non-specific disruption,
riotous assembly, or other societal collapse.
It could even be an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse, if you wanted
to imagine it - I suppose. Equally, it
might predict the 2017 protests against Government ethno-economic cleansing,
the 2020 food riots, or the response to a major epidemic of completely
antibiotic-resistant disease, (say, around 2024?) All we see are clues, in the form of trashed
buildings and vehicles, debris, and seemingly bemused media crews and
Police. The Police are everywhere, in
fact – accompanied by the flashing blue LEDs of their
tiny vehicles.
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| Jimmy Cauty/L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle', 2016 |
The piece has
been touring the country for some months now - following an itinerary that
corresponds with sites of previous rioting, both recent and historical. Wherever it alights, the local hosting
organisation has contributed contextual information on that particular aspect
of local social history. In Nottingham,
the material produced supplies insights into the city’s dissident tradition,
dating back to the medieval period, when it was often seen as a bulwark against
feudal injustice [1.]. It also takes-in Nottingham’s importance as a Civil
War centre of Parliamentarian resistance; and later - as the birth place of
Luddism, an important nexus of the Chartist movement, and of violent protest in support of the 1831 Reform Act. More
recent flare-ups include the city’s race riots of 1958 and 1981, and its part
in the wave of disorder that swept Britain in 2011.
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| 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' (Exterior), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, October 2016 (Never Far From This Guy In Nottamun) |
As Cauty pointed
out, despite the inherent subversion of the piece, (and pretty much everything
else he lays hands on), ‘ADP’ is not
necessarily a simplistic hatchet job on the police. It purports to report a disquieting - but all
too imaginable scene; and one in which the tiny police are the only real stars,
appearing perhaps as impotently perplexed by events as the rest of us. In fact, closer examination of the various
tableaux visible through the container’s limited apertures seems to reveal some
of them to be engaged in subversive or increasingly absurdist acts of dissent
of their own. Faced with devastation on
this scale, are they themselves starting to turn native? Or, could it even be that they are the real authors
of all that devastation? What are their motives, exactly?
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| Jimmy Cauty/L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle', 2014 |
Whatever our
interpretation, this certainly feels like a comment on the contagious nature of
despair and apocalyptic collapse, but also an indication of how absurdity
increases and accepted assumptions fail in direct proportion to intensifying
authoritarian repression. As one is
drawn deeper into the microcosm of ‘ADP’
– the more it reveals a wealth of gags and sly, dystopian humour. It makes the piece exceedingly apposite in
our current situation, - perhaps even more so even than when Cauty began work
on it in 2013. Britain suddenly feels
well and truly through the looking glass; and a place where sardonic humour
may prove the best defense of sanity.
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| Jimmy Cauty/L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle', 2014 |
Cauty himself frames the container’s progress around Britain as a form of pilgrimage - highlighting the degree to which the history of political and social dissent has often had a powerful religious strand running through it. This has often displayed a distinctly messianic or ‘end of days’ character. The accompanying ‘ADP’ publication includes a revealing essay by Jonathan Downing [2.], which reveals that Bedford itself was the source of Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ [3.]. It was also the home of Mabel Balthrop’s twentieth century Panacea Society – a group who believed their communal residential garden to be the original site of Eden, and the location to which Jesus would reappear to the world. Anyway, having been aware of the container’s movements for some months, I was determined to catch up with it at some stage in the year. Its tenure in Nottingham was my nearest opportunity to do so.
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| 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' (Exterior), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, October 2016 |
As it turned out, my own little pilgrimage was nearly stymied by the presence of Nottingham’s famous Goose Fair - just up the road from New Art Exchange. That meant Saturday afternoon traffic was even more congested than normal, and local parking a near-impossibility. Having finally dropped lucky several streets away, I arrived a few minutes late - to discover Cauty and his ‘ADP’ collaborator presiding over a room packed with people, and had to satisfy myself with straining to hear what was said from the fringes. Nevertheless, it was interesting to hear their reflections on the project, and responses to the various questions posed.
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| Jimmy Cauty/L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle', 2016 |
Cauty himself was a study in diffident humility and mild bemusement. Or possibly, just exhaustion - the whole project appearing to have completely absorbed him as it’s expanded in scope and ambition over the months. He claimed to be no model-maker, though admitted to being quite good at it - which I’d say is an understatement. Regardless of one’s response to the motivations behind it, the sheer quantity of work and attention to fine detail involved in the model is properly impressive. I was struck by the contrast between the painstaking work involved in its construction, and the apparent chaos it depicts. In passing, I wonder if he was also responsible for the elements of model making in several of Last Century’s glorious KLF videos, (damn! – should have asked).
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| 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' (Exterior), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, October 2016 |
It was intriguing to learn that this is actually only one of three ‘ADP’ dioramas, and that the whole thing will finally come together in a grand culmination in Bedford itself, at Christmas. It appears that one of the remaining sections depicts the Police constructing a kind of fortified, concrete Tower of Babel, suggesting that they may have a New Jerusalem/New Bedford aftermath agenda of their own - to the exclusion of the displaced survivors. The construction of walls, exclusion zones, and protected enclaves, along with an ever more paranoid fortress mentality, feels particularly prescient. It may be well worth the trip to take in the full story, in December.
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| 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' (Exterior), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, October 2016 (There's That 'Legal Name Fraud' Again). |
As the audience dispersed, I made my way outside to join the other curious visitors who clamoured to press their eyes (and lenses) up to the container’s spyholes. My own photos can only give the merest suggestion of what was visible inside. However, I did collect numerous images of the tangle of graffiti, stickers, posters, anarchist tracts and guerrilla knitting - augmenting its exterior walls. Indeed, it’s fair to say the piece is a true example of democratic outsider art. Despite the main attraction within, (and the element of Arts Council funding now subsidising it, somewhat ironically) - the exterior is nothing but an organic and authentic bulletin board of just about every variety of voice from the streets.
Whatever else it may or may not evoke, ‘Aftermath Dislocation Principle’ feels like a powerful, multi-dimensional study of both the official and the unofficial; the governors and the (invisible) governed; and perhaps more importantly - of the ways in which they abrade each other.
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| 'The Aftermath Dislocation Principle' (Exterior), New Art Exchange, Nottingham, October 2016 |
[1.]: Something that may account for its
memorialisation, in folklore - as the home of Robin Hood. New Art Exchange itself is situated close to
Nottingham’s Forest Recreation Ground, and only slightly further from its
Sherwood district.
[2.]: Jonathan Downing, ‘“A New City Will Be Built”: Apocalypse, Bedford, And The Aftermath
Dislocation Principle’. In: Jimmy
Cauty, ‘The Aftermath Dislocation
Principle 2016 Tour Guide’, London, Prophetic Promotions Press, 2016
