Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Chris & Cosey: Logo #283

This amalgam of sperm, king and egg was designed by Stephen Gilmore in 1984. Chris and Cosey go under the name Carter Tutti now; here's what I wrote in the L.A. Weekly after one 2005 live action: "Nostalgia is a bit like going to the dentist: past sensations are felt so acutely that their anticipation is nearly equals original sensation. So it is with Carter-Tutti, formerly Chris & Cosey, they of the previously submerged Throbbing Gristle until its recent revivification campaign – and what better space in which to play for these wreckers of civilization than a building whose reflective panels inflict sunburn in ten minutes for those standing before it? Slowed footage of children at the seaside and amusement parks segue into animated hands altered to resemble Kirlian photography by way of jewels and honey. Carter manipulates various inscrutable dials from his left-side laptop / mixing desk, scoring footage in which Cosey’s veiled head turns into a pomegranate. Her almost subliminal croon subsumes below the music, much of which is propelled by her gentle picking at an echoing guitar before occasional harmonica and trumpet blasts. There’s an overriding sense of revelation – from Carter’s unblinking eyes to the repeated images of wide-eyed children. Over time, naturally, revelation happens in one’s life in more gentle ways – for instance, under the idyllic gaze of Wozniak’s apple and the rapt applause of a literally full house rather than gallery-destroying milk-and-blood enemas."

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