Kate MacGarry is pleased to announce Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’s third solo exhibition at the gallery.
ROMEO ECHO DELTA is a new 30 minute sound work. It follows in a long line of radio hoaxes and fake UFO scares, most famously, Orson Welles’ 1938 radio play of H.G. Well’s sci-fi classic War of the Worlds and the BBC’s groundbreaking 1926 Broadcasting the Barricades by Father Ronald Knox.
Plugging into an enduring fascination with Mars, the red planet, ROMEO ECHO DELTA simulates current-day live breaking news. Forsyth & Pollard unpick the contemporary nature of our saturated media, where a story is caught in a suspended limbo, important enough to demand immediate air time, but without enough information to justify constant reporting. ROMEO ECHO DELTA occupies this space, this contemporary phenomenon.
Initially the work will be broadcast on radio in the Northwest of England. Presented in real-time, this simulated live broadcast will interrupt the usual programming. The presenter is in the throes of interviewing X-Factor finalist Maria Lawson when breaking news comes in of a bright red light piercing the night sky over Birkenhead. The broadcast becomes dense with speculation, confusion and repetition. Reporters are dispatched to the scene and callers contact the station to attempt to make sense of what they’re witnessing, including Liverpool daytime talk-show host Roger Phillips and a hastily sourced inappropriate expert in the form of parapsychologist Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe. During the broadcast an ominous beam of bright red light extending into the night sky will be clearly visible puncturing reality.
The script was written with author and actor Ben Moor, who’s credits include Spitting Image and the sci-fi series Undone for BBC Radio. The project was commissioned by FACT and A.N.D. Festival.
Iain Forsyth born in Manchester 1973, Jane Pollard born in Newcastle 1972. Both live and work in London.
Other upcoming public commissions include Soon, Nuit Blanche, Toronto, 1-2 October 2011. Recent solo exhibitions include Publicsfear, South London Gallery, 2011; Silent Sound, AV Festival, Middlesbrough Town Hall, 2010; Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work, BFI Southbank Gallery, London, and Performer. Audience. Fuck Off. Site Gallery, Sheffield, 2009.
For more information please contact the gallery: mail@katemacgarry.com, 020 7613 0515.
