Richard John Jones, PROH-SOH’ PA-PEER, Part II

I. A participatory event and real time video shoot taking place at auto italia south east.<br />
II. A 6-week video installation at SPACE, exactly a month after the original event.

PROH-SOH’ PA-PEER* is a sustained exploration of the representational logic of the mainstream media — in particular, the role the media has in shaping the ideological predicates of contemporary political, activist and libidinal (in particular queer) subject positions.

*The exhibition’s title is a phonetic play on the word ‘prosopopoeia’: a rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to an audience by speaking as another person or object.

1. AUTO ITALIA SOUTH EAST (08/08/09)

The first exhibition, hosted by auto-italia south east, took place in the form of a structured performance and film shoot. Proceedings had the spirit of a contemporary live TV programme and were shot in front of an open-invite audience. The ‘television-magazine’ tone of the shoot encompassed live performance and actions centering on the dialectical relationship between sex and power in both historical and contemporary modes of political activism. Highly choreographed, yet suitably chaotic, the performance incorporated multi-scenarios, players and situations into a live event spread over a number of acts.

2. SPACE (04/09/09 — 17/10/09)

Following the live event, the footage filmed during the first part of the exhibition has been condensed and edited into a video installation. Occupying the project room at SPACE for six-weeks the footage is displayed on a loop alongside a specially constructed environment.

Richard John Jones (b. 1986, Chesterfield) graduated from Central Saint Martins School of Art in 2008. PROH-SOH’ PA-PEER is a unique collaboration between the artist, Auto Italia South East and the NEU! exhibition platform at SPACE.