The Atrocity Expedition

I recently went with Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor, Andy Sharp of English Heretic, and Leila Dear of electronic beat combo Indigo Octagon on a visit to the Crash exhibition – ‘homage to JG Ballard’ – at the Gagosian Gallery in Britannia Street WC1X. A pale sun beat feebly down on bare winter branches. A bobbing Mickey Mouse balloon leered at us from a nearby Starbucks window. Kings Cross had never seemed lovelier. From time to time, usually when we least expected it, Mark would pull out his camera.

Pictured above from top to bottom: KH, Andy Sharp and Leila Dear preparing themselves for another spring in the Northern Hemisphere; turned on by the smell of damp underlay and dusty light fittings, KH and Andy Sharp mistake Mike Nelson’s ‘Preface to the 2004 Edition (Triple Bluff Canyon)’ for an orgone accumulator and start vibrating in unison with some of the images embedded in the old movie-house fixtures used as part of the installation. Leila later observed that the arrangement of the walls in this ‘constructed space’ was, in fact, octagonal. Photographs by Mark Pilkington - who also came up with the title for this post.