CHEMICAL WEDDING

Commissioned by the ICA in London for the princely sum of £150 Chemical
Wedding was devised by Matt Adams, Niki Jewett, Will Kitttow and Ju Row
Farr.

The piece explored the conflict between viruses as a reality and virus as a
metaphor in the age of HIV/AIDS. A fiercely physical piece in which
performers struggled with one another, with piles of medical tomes and with
the audience themselves. Throughout two video screens regurgitated AIDS
paranoia, body horror films and a hexagonal map of "viral" connections
between phrases and ideas. For example, the possible links between the
movie Aliens, the idea of plague and government policy steadily spread
across the screen.

The movement of the audience around the space itself took on the form of a
mutating organism, dividing and reuniting. This reached its apex when
spectators were asked to move into coloured pools of light to indicate their
response to a series of questions. Red indicated yes, blue meant no and
those with no answer moved into the white light. Performers counted the
number in each pool and this information was entered into a word processor,
printed out, photocopied and handed to the public as they left. Questions
such as "Have you ever had a verucca?" were recontextualised on the print
out: "A verucca is a virus".

The culmination of the work was two entropic systems at cross purposes with
one another. Two women in harnesses connected to a pulley system used long
spoons to fill each others buckets with sand. The weight of the buckets
through a gear system gradually lifted them into the air so that they were
unable to reach the sand. At the same time a man in a room lay on the bed
smoking and then did exercises while observed by a video camera through a
window. A second man on the other side of the performance space used the
video feed to map the room and the position of the man in it by drawing in
chalk on the floor. His call of "Can you see him now?" was answered by the
two women according to whether they had sand on their spoon. As their
system collapsed so did his. Throughout a driving score by Michael Nyman
steadily rose in volume to drown out the performers before they collapsed
from exhaustion.

"Blast Theory are one of the most refreshing performance groups to have emerged in Britain in recent years. If there is any young performance group creating work that is accessible and relevant to a new generation of audiences brought up on pop music, TV, rave culture and the harsh realities of our times, Blast Theory are it." Lois Keidan, Director of Live Arts, ICA