Jimmy Cauty’s CHINOOK (Wall of Death pre-mix): by Shunt Resistor & the L-13 Light Industrial Orchestra
Thursday, June 3rd, at 8pm EST, ISSUE presents a remote audio visual realization of a soundtrack for a dystopian zone from legendary artist, musician, record producer, model maker and cultural provocateur, Jimmy Cauty. Cauty, along with Alex Paterson, was co-founder of The Orb and with Bill Drummond; Cauty also formed The Timelords, The KLF, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (furthermore known as The JAMS), The K Foundation, the KLFRS (KLF Re-enactment Society) and CCC&D (Callender, Callender, Cauty & Drummond Undertakers)—who, in partnership with The Green Funeral Company, are presently coordinating Mumufication, building The People’s Pyramid in Toxteth, Liverpool.
Cauty will present CHINOOK (A Wall of Death Remix) by Shunt Resistor and the L-13 Light Industrial Orchestra. CHINOOK was first broadcast in 2019 by an underground radio station based in the control room of a disused power station in London. Since then it has become the soundtrack for the most extreme setting of a dystopian model village experience that tours the world in a 40-foot shipping container: the MdZ ESTATE Tour.
Described as being suitable for those who have been desensitized by The System, this soundtrack is what you hear on entering the MdZ ESTATE Tour container when set to the Full English Mode. Accompanied by smoke and strobe lighting, this extremely loud and disorientating audio is delivered by a 4K turbosound PA system without mercy. A situation made worse by alarming instructions being shouted at you by the Voice of Authority.
For this remote AV realization at ISSUE Project Room, lead Shunt Resistor Jimmy Cauty has remixed the soundtrack to fit one of his Wall of Death videos. Wall of Death videos were intended to be shown on circular walls of monitors where the viewer stands in the middle while the artist rides the wall of death of his own making on a high-powered motorcycle.
Since the global pandemic and the rise of NFTs, such real-world engagements have been pushed into the realms of digital remoteness and lone imaginings, so here you can view and listen from the discomfort of your own home.
Jimmy Cauty is a British artist, born in Merseyside in 1956. Over a diverse and productive career Cauty has distinguished himself as a musician, record producer, artist and cultural provocateur through fusions of high art, low art and popularist mediums to spectacular effect. As a teenager Cauty drew the intricate multi-million selling Lord of the Rings poster for British retailer Athena. With Alex Patterson as The Orb and with Bill Drummond as The KLF and the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, Cauty co-wrote and produced a string of global top ten hits. As The K-Foundation, Cauty and Drummond staged a series of seminal actions including the 1994 K Foundation Art Award for Worst Artist of the Year and the K Foundation Burn A Million Quid. From experimental sonic weapons (the Advanced Acoustic Armaments), to anti-Iraq war postage stamps (Stamps of Mass Destruction), and model making (Riot In A Jam Jar and the Aftermath Dislocation Principle) Cauty’s work combines dissent, cultural subversion and gleeful level of high humor. His roguish and voluble approach has earned him a cult following for work that remains radical, responsive and darkly comical. He produces work that draws on and responds to contemporary culture, sampling it and selling it back as recoded realities.
In 2013 Cauty completed The Aftermath Dislocation Principle (ADP), a vast 1:87 scale-model landscape (equivalent to 1 sq mile in miniature) which has been completely looted, destroyed, burnt and is devoid of life apart from 3000 or so model police that attend this apocalyptic aftermath. In 2015 the ADP was installed in Banksy’s Dismaland in Weston Super Mare. The following year the ADP was re-configured and housed in a 40ft shipping container with industrial viewing ports built into the sides, and despatched on a pilgrimage to over 35 sites of historic rioting and public dissent in the UK: The ADP Riot Tour. By the end of the tour the ADP was viewed by more than 1 million people. The ADP now tours sites of historic rioting around the world. In 2020 Cauty completed another dystopian model village at 1:24 scale, featuring four abandoned concrete tower blocks installed inside a 40-foot shipping container. The tower blocks each serve a different function in the ESTATE and contain amusing scenes of mass social, economic and environmental devastation. ESTATE is viewed by walking through the shipping container, and the experience includes smoke, strobe lighting, wind, earth-shattering loud noise, and tiny TV broadcasts. ESTATE is now touring the UK on the MdZ ESTATE Tour. In his spare time Cauty enjoys painting smiley faces onto battle-scarred police riot shields (Smiley Riot Shields).
