To kick off the Kingsbridge Fair Week celebrations, Harbour House presents Turner Prize Winner Jeremy Deller's iconic Acid Brass, a 28 piece brass band performing Acid House anthems. Acid Brass will be performed in Kingsbridge by the Williams Fairey Brass Band, the band Deller collaborated with in 1997.
This exciting performance will mark the opening of an exhibition of Deller's work, Music is Prophecy, at Harbour House. The exhibition will bring together works which explore the relationship between Acid House and Brass Band Music and both genres as moments of protest and dissent from the prevailing political and social order, where music led the way and history followed.
Acid Brass (1997) sees the Williams Fairey Brass Band, perform cover versions of Acid House classics. Established in 1937, The Fairey Band is one of the most successful contesting brass bands in the world. In his recent book Art is Magic, Deller explains "l have a thing about cover versions, which can tell profound stories of change and evolution in the simplest and most pleasurable way."
To add to the celebrations, Harbour House will be working with local social art collective JarSquad to offer free light refreshments made from surplus and foraged food in the gallery on the day of the performance. It will also be an opportunity to visit the new pop-up cafe at Harbour House, opening on the day of the event.
Music is Prophecy takes its title from the first chapter of Art is Magic, which in turn borrows it from the theorist Jacques Attali who made the case that music has the potential to predict what is to come socially, politically and culturally.
Works include; History of the World (1996), Acid Brass (1997) and Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 (2018).
The History of the World (1996) is a hand-painted wall diagram showing the social, political and musical connections between acid house and brass band music. It provides the visual rationale for Acid Brass (1997) and maps a moment of British history, taking in the Miners Strike, raves and the Criminal Justice Act. It acts as a film script for Everybody in the Place. An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 (2018).
Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992 (2018) is a film work taking the form of a music documentary. It explores the relationship between history and popular culture, in particular how dance music sped history and change along.
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As part of the programme around Acid Brass and Music is Prophecy, Harbour House will be announcing a series of exciting free events for the community in the near future, including a silent disco collaboration with Kingsbridge's KDJ Collective. Come along to see the exhibition and find out more!
Performance: Sat 20 July 2024, 4:30 - 5:30pm, Band Stand, Kingsbridge Town Square.
Exhibition: Sat 20 July 2024, 10am - 6.30pm, then Mon - Sat 10-5 until 28 September.