| Phil Collins: Yeah You, Baby You | Admission free
Sat 9 April - 29 May 2005
Open: Tues – Sat 10.00-17.00, Sundays 11.00-17.00, closed Mondays
(including early May Bank Holiday)
01908 676900 In Conversation with Phil Collins * Tony Wilson
Wed 20 April 19.30
Booking Essential
Tickets £5 (£3 concs.)
Hear Anthony Wilson, TV presenter, writer journalist and nightclub manager, known for his promotion of legendary pop groups Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays, discuss with artist Phil Collins the music and influences that were to inspire a generation. Doors open at 19.00 for a pre-talk viewing. Look Who’s Talking Series
Saturdays Free No booking required
All talks run between 12.00 - 12.30
MK-G continues its series of free, informal talks and tours, with speakers offering their personal perspectives on the Phil Collins exhibition: Sat 9 April Phil Collins
The artist leads an informal tour of the exhibition. Sat 30 April Sadie Plant
Writer and cultural theorist, talks about the political and technological dimensions of Collins' work. Sat 21 May Clare Grafik
Programme Organiser, the Photographers' Gallery, London, discusses the concept of community in Phil Collins' work. |
Milton Keynes Gallery presents the most comprehensive exhibition to date by the UK artist Phil Collins - not to be confused with the pop star of the same name. Collins' work is a variety of film and photographs and as part of the exhibition the former High Street photo technician will be running a free fotolab! The artist will develop the films free of charge in exchange for the exclusive universal image rights for their photographs, some of which will be exhibited in the gallery as part of his own work. Collins, who has a passion for snapshots, thinks that the project will evolve in later tour venues, resulting in an intriguing final body of work.
 | | They Shoot Horses |
Premiering at MKG is Collins two-screen video installation They Shoot Horses, 2004. For this work, Collins went to Ramallah, Palestine, where he auditioned a number of young people to participate in an eight hour disco-dance marathon. The film is energetic, amusing, beguiling and moving, the dancing interrupted only by the call to prayer from a nearby mosque, power cuts, and technical problems. Collins says that the work is about survival and collapse, heroism and exploitation and the cabin fever mentality generated by eight hours of repetitive action. Collins had travelled to places where "the fabric of the community is tested to the full": Palestine, Kosovo, Colombia, Iraq, Serbia, and Northern Ireland. Using his camera as a “ticket” to gain access to the most profound human situations and experiences - birth, death, war, love and loss - his images deal with global issues. Karaoke campaign Also showing is a work made during a recent trip to Colombia. The World Won’t Listen (2005) is a karaoke machine made for fans of The Smiths in Bogotá. Working with local musicians, Collins re-recorded the backing tracks of the entire album (from Panic to Golden Lights) and after a city-wide campaign filmed 60 singers over three days.
 | | They Shoot Horses |
Collins has exhibited widely in venues such as Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Espacio la Rebeca, Bogotá; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Modern Art, Oxford; Tate Britain, London; Barbican Centre, London; Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast; The Wrong Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. This year Collins will be participating in the ninth Istanbul Biennial. This significant exhibition has been organised by MK G and is scheduled to tour to The National Gallery of Arts, Tirana, Albania; firstsite, Colchester; Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, and Neue Kunst Halle, St Gallen, Switzerland. |
