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You Pigs present NTSC VHS VJ Barry Valentino playing live with Splitty McCheeks
Saturday 14th August, 2-4pm
Square Chapel, Halifax, UK
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You Pigs present NTSC VHS VJ Barry Valentino playing live with Splitty McCheeks
The special guest performing with Splitty McCheeks at the FAFF Opening Event will be Hollywood based NTSC VHS VJ Barry Valentino. Barry plays 10 VHS video players hung round his neck projecting the mixed images through a digital projector strapped to his head. Barry will be flying over from his condo on Mulholland Drive, Hollywood, straight to the Halifax Square Chapel. Don't miss this unique performer in his first UK gig.
www.youpigs.com
Eagle & Feather present KIPPLE: VHS Art for the Digital Age
Kipple: A term borrowed from Phillip K Dick referring to the detritus of modern living that will one day overwhelm us.
“Kipple drives out nonkipple………No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot………the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization.” Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Eagle & Feather: Julian Butler, aka Eagle, and Stephen Earl Rogers, aka Feather. Stephen is an artist working mainly as a painter. He is held in permanent collections in the UK and United States and has exhibited many times at the National Portrait Gallery. Julian is a film-maker and television producer. His work has appeared on BBC2, Channel 4, Sky, ITV and at the Edinburgh, London and Cannes film festivals.
Collaboratively, Eagle & Feather have been putting their own interpretation on the term kipple for a number of years. Through regular visits to charity shops, public libraries and jumble sales they have amassed a collection of absurdly peripheral and esoteric videotapes, selected for their distinct peculiarity.
Theirs is an attempt at alchemy, taking base material and transforming it, by various means – editing, manipulating, combining and reducing - into something that is imbued with new qualities - humour, drama, pathos and poetry. Turning kipple into non-kipple, at least temporarily.
www.smileorangefilms.co.uk/film_kipple.html
www.youtube.com/user/smileorange3
About Eagle & Feather
Before meeting each other Feather had previously trained as green berets under the legendary Colonel Trautman, Eagle and had MC'ed for John Virgo on his UK tour. And Feather was very aware of being a jew.
Whilst saving the beaver and with Grey Owl in Canada they both went foraging for food (things like mashed bread and Robin Morley's smelly cheese). But instead they uncovered a nuclear bunker where the US government had dumped video tapes, saved for future generations.
The first tape they played featured Cleethorpes Rastafarian and Bob Marley chancellor Irie White singing ‘Bye Bye Dobbin’. The second tape was an incontinence self help video ’Out and about and dry’. They were hooked. Returning from the bunker as prophets to The Midlands and Slaithwaite, they set up a monastery to spread the gospel of what they called KIPPLE.
They were ignored for many years until, by chance, Melvyn Bragg was introduced to KIPPLE by Gail Porter. He immediately got them involved in the filming of the Granada show 'An Audience with Cliff Richard Possessed' and choreographing the fight scenes for Cliff Richard's Heathcliff.
Eagle and Feather were now unstoppable going on to start their own fashion label for tractor drivers (Brotherhood Fashions) endorsed by celebs like Peter Fonda and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. They also sponsored Jan Johnson in his failed 'Portraits from Space' and Olympic pole-vault bid. The duo's range of cuddly toys based on the 'furry' (the incredible Japanese headless dogs) is launched this fall. They also got themselves a pizza ad out of it.
Catch them here in Halifax for their warm up show before their London Palladium live parade, starring Paul Wheater (Paul has always been a drinker), the 'better than Jolson' sounds of Clive Baldwin and Timothy Dalton's performance with his trained wolves ('A Wolf-able experience' - Peter Ustinov, Daily Telegraph). The young Jonathan Pryce may also make an appearance with the Florida Jets display team.
Eagle and Feather also gain inspiration from the following works of VHS art:
Fish for a Quid, The Bream Machine, Carp on the Long Pole, Introducing the new Velux Roof Window System, Electronic Monitoring for Offenders, How to Hang Wallpaper, Creative Routing for the Home Craftsman, How You Can Win Competitions, The Legion Players Present The Wind in the Willows Gaiety Theatre 8th to 10th November 2001, Born 2B Gangsta?, Egyptian Belly Dancing for Intermediates, Get to Know God Video, Happy to be a Muslim, The Kingdom of Ticky Tack, The Story of the Red Mason Bee, Ceramic Tiling, The Making of ‘Seasonal Gardening’, Ray Reardon Master Class, Food Processor Cooking: Tasty Tips from the Craft Cook, Traction Engines: The Millers Trail Vol 1, Learn the Skills of Rugby League, Tom’s River, Master Bakers: A Golden Opportunity, Start the Day with Great Taste: Exclusive video from Nescafe featuring Susannah & Trinny, Tony Allcock’s Art of Bowls, Get That Job, Game for a Job, Is Work for Me?, Learning Tenor Banjo, Darrin’s Dancing Grooves, British Rail Today, Kleeneze: What does Success Mean to You?, Horse Sense for Riders, Super Tours in Super Somerset, Discover Fish, Learn to knot Vol 1, Retailing, Resources in Training and Education Ltd, Sports Boat, Tile it Yourself, The Fun of Cake Decorating, Fimo Modelling Projects: Fill your Doll’s House / Shop / Market Stall, Jersey Battle of Flowers, Safe Moving and Handling for Carers at Home, Breastfeeding: A Gift for Life, What you Really Need to know about Problems with Fertility, Out and About and Dry.
Previous KIPPLE Events
TV
'The BBC: Budget Broadcasting Corporation'. Pilot for Channel K for Channel 4. 2008
'Headgasm'. Pilot with Shine productions for Bravo Channel. 2006
'Top Ten Kipple Moments'. Pilot for Granada TV. 2005
Exhibitions
2010
A Night of Kipple, Blacklab, Manchester
Video Progetto, Grand Union & 26CC, Birmingham and Rome
2009
Knowing me Knowing you, Vivid, Birmingham
Endless Supply, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds Film Festival, Leeds
Popcorn Comedy, Roxy Bar & Screen, London
Supersonic Festival 09, The Custard Factory, Birmingham
Everyday Film & Photography, Temporary Art Space, Halifax
Flatpack Festival 3, Kino, Birmingham
Antifreeze - art car boot sale – Manchester
Exploding Cinema, London
Everything is Terrible, LA, USA
2008
Conjunction 08, Stoke-on-Trent
Supersonic Festival 08, The Custard Factory, Birmingham
2007
Kipple Night, Periscope, Birmingham
Aurora, In association with 7inch Cinema, Norwich Arts Centre
Supersonic Festival 07, The Custard Factory, Birmingham
Capsule & Cake - Gigbeth, Birmingham
Video Gumbo, Hare & hounds, Birmingham
Flatpack Festival 2, Birmingham
New Generation Arts Festival, The Electric Cinema, Birmingham
Reviews and Features
'Wow, great stuff!' - Davy Rothbart, Found Magazine
'I love this so so so much' - Robert Popper, Writer; Peep Show, Look Around You, IT Crowd
'British people like to act superior to their colonial cousins, thanks to video wizards Eagle & Feather we know that thats just bollocks.' - EverythingisTerrible.com
'Holy shit, that's ridiculous.' - Joe Pickett, Found Film Festival
'Unnerving Fun' - Headpress Magazine
'Made me double up. Am I wrong?' - Matt Tiller, Comedian
'Like speed injected into the eyeballs.' - BlackLab
