A new live collaboration between NAPALM DEATH and KEITH HARRISON under the name Bustleholme has been announced for Friday, November 29. Initially created for the V&A, this explosive performance has been given a new life in the Modernist setting of the De La Warr Pavilion.
This groundbreaking project will see the band come together with ceramicist Keith Harrison, to depict and destroy a custom-built installation during a one-off live performance. Expect no limitations imposed upon what will no doubt be one of the most important events of the cultural calendar.
The band will play a special live set through an experimental sculptural sound system constructed by Harrison. Clad with blue and yellow ceramic tiles, the raw, uncompromising energy of NAPALM DEATH ‘smusic will activate a set of three specially created ceramic sound systems, which will disintegrate as the performance progresses.
Artist Keith Harrison was Ceramics Resident at the V&A from October 2012 to March 2013. Harrison’s work explores the potential for the direct physical transformation of clay using industrial and domestic electrical systems in a series of time-based public events. These treat the clay in seemingly inappropriate ways, applied directly onto electrical equipment or other host objects. The resulting works are willfully idealistic and impractical attempts to permanently change the properties of the material, or to produce a sensory alteration such as the generation or modulation of sound.
Keith Harrison says:
“My interest in NAPALM DEATH started in the late eighties when as a teenager in Birmingham I would listen to John Peel’s evening radio show when they would appear out of nowhere in jaw dropping fashion, sometimes for no more than a few seconds.
The raw, uncompromising energy of NAPALM DEATH will be used to activate a set of three specially created ceramic sound systems based on the group of vivid blue and yellow tiled tower blocks on the Bustleholme Mill Estate, West Bromwich where I was born.”
Mark “Barney” Greenway, vocalist of NAPALM DEATH says: “Sound as a weapon – or a weapon of change – is a very interesting concept and I think that the whole process of our sound gradually degrading clay sculptures is captivating. The noise element of music should never be understated and this event at De La Warr Pavilion will hopefully demonstrate that music can do interesting things beyond the realms of clipped production techniques. On a personal level, particularly of interest to me is the fact that the sculptor Keith grew up around the very same area as me in Great Barr, Birmingham, and basing his sculptures around the tower blocks in that area brings back a lot of quirky memories mixed with the impressions of shameful deprivation in some of those places. Bustleholme is a challenging and exciting proposition, a bringing together of artists operating at the outer limits of their respective genres to create a unique happening that pushes the boundaries of artistic expression.”
The event is free, but limited. Booking fees apply. Maximum four tickets per booking. For more information call 01424 229111 or visit www.dlwp.com.