A kills B

2010-06-13T15:43:00.016+01:00

A KILLS B - LISBON, PORTUGAL 2010

Sobre um céu revolto

fala enquanto dorme

de um mar olíquo
performance at Appleton Square

http://www.appletonsquare.pt/

Sobre um céu revolto... 2010, performance photos by José Maria Cyrne

2010-06-13T12:48:00.018+01:00

A kills B - GRAPHIC SCORE

Sobre um céu revolto / fala enquanto dorme / de um mar oblíquo

A kills B - POEM

Sobre um céu revolto / fala enquanto dorme / de um mar oblíquo

(re-arranged from a poem in The Book of Urizen by William Blake)

Firme e denso. Grandioso mundo um.

Ergueu-se das águas e vagas vastas as apartei.

Poder meu. Cessam sem cair.

Liquefeitos torrentes em, mas ventos

implacáveis os dominei. Sou eu e eu era!

Vazio no equilíbrio estendido.

Natureza do seio vasto e nu. Nada o era. Onde.

Fim sem negro, agreste, vazio imenso um.

Consumido, o fogo contra o primeiro lutou.

Chamas perpétuas, em viver porquê?

Desejo vosso, será morrer porquê?

Mudança isenta de alguma solidez.

Liberta, dor de, alegria numa busca.

Porvir dos dias reservados.

Soturna reflexão embrenhada e encoberto

sacrossanto refúgio meu, na morada eterna

sombria solidão, minha da/na fundura.

Montanhas de cumes, porque ressoam?

Estrondos como articuladas palavras.

A trovejar, confusão escorrendo, que iam.

Águas e treva, nuvens de plenos já.

Gelados desertos em reunião.

Eternidade, número grande, que soa pela trombeta.

Espaço imenso no ente solitário do nome.

A KILLS B - VINYL EDITION 2010

Sobre um céu revolto / fala enquanto dorme / de um mar oblíquo
Produced by A kills B and Appleton Square

Vinyl in silkscreen print cover / edition of 20 + 10 A/P

SIDE A 18’ 27”
Piano / Filipe Raposo
Double bass / Yuri Daniel
Drums / Carlos Miguel
Sound effects / João Ferro Martins

SIDE B 8’ 39”
Vocals / Hugo Canoilas
Sound effects / João Ferro Martins

General Information

Sound / Joaquim Monte
Namouche Studio, Lisbon
Design / Pedro Falcão
Silkscreen printing / Nuno Bettencourt
Atelier Arte e Expressão, Caldas da Rainha
Curator / Maria do Mar Fazenda

For the first track, a jam session with several musicians was conducted from a ‘graphic score’ – as if it was an undulating landscape, something between the aerial and the desert. The classically structured music of the jazz musicians underwent two breaks or deconstructions.

The second track consists of a poem by William Blake re-wrighten in a backwards process. The poem becomes more concrete in this attempt to break with language and to make it autonomous. It then reaches the body like the sound of a drum.

2010-06-13T12:40:00.003+01:00

SIDE A

SIDE B

2010-06-12T15:33:00.004+01:00

A KILLS B - LISBON, PORTUGAL 2010

Sobre um céu revolto

fala enquanto dorme

de um mar olíquo
exhibition at Appleton Square

http://www.appletonsquare.pt/

2010-06-12T15:22:00.011+01:00

GREY MONOCHROME (blue stripe)

2010

Acrylic and varnish on MDF and pine wood

230,5 x 158 cm

GREY MONOCHROME (black composition)

2010

Acrylic and varnish on MDF and pine wood

252 x 183 cm

GREY MONOCHROME (yellow and white)

2010

Acrylic and varnish on MDF and pine wood

230,5 x 185,5 cm

GREY MONOCHROME (raw line)

2010

Acrylic and varnish on MDF and pine wood

230,5 x 167 cm

These paintings were discovered while de-installing a big construction made in the studio. We realize that something had occurred during this process, something that could not have been produced and could not be preconceived or made manually. A decision to exhibit these paintings was made and the only interference was to apply a protective layer of matte varnish, since we aim to benefit from an event, something that emerges before us and is in many ways what the work also ends up to be: work that simultaneously is the attempt of a program and the witnessing of what happens in front of us. The monochrome has always been something that A Kills B have tried to develop, and is, in fact, the genesis of a bridge between the first elements of the group.

2010-06-12T15:06:00.014+01:00

DIALOGUE WITH BLACK CUBE

2010

Ceramics head, acrylic glass cube, pine board, iron tripod, speaker, amplifier, CD's reader

142 x 300 x 55 cm

Audio: 16' 07'' (On The Marionette Theatre by Heirich von Kleist)

(voice by Gerd Hammer)

The dialogue or monologue with the black cube is related to the history of the monochrome that for A kills B goes from Malevich’s Black Square to António Areal’s A História Dramática de um Ovo (The Dramatic Story of an Egg). It is also obviously related to the text read in German (The puppet theatre by Heinrich von Kleist selected by José Miranda Justo who collaborated with us on this piece) that emphasizes the existence of a discourse behind the ‘formal thing’ (the swing), element that also operates as something that keeps time for the viewer, linking the viewer to the piece.

The German language has the quality of becoming very mechanical to the Portuguese audience, reminiscent of radio plays and concrete language. The spectator therefore creates an abstract or formal relation with the text, very similar to the one experienced with the cube. The text is also layered with information that in the future could allow a re-territorialization of this work in relation to notions of ‘the original’, machination, and event.

2010-05-23T12:30:00.007+01:00

A KILLS B - LISBON, PORTUGAL 2010

NAMOUCHE STUDIO
recording "Sobre um céu revolto..."

http://www.wix.com/martaw/namouchestudio

2010-01-17T23:29:00.018Z

A KILLS B - LISBON, PORTUGAL 2009

DIMENSÃO RADIAL
RADIAL DIMENSION
installation project for VPF Rock Galery

http://artecapital.net/rockgallery/

DIMENSÃO RADIAL 2009, installation views

The motivation was to construct a space that cannot happen in just one week of in situ work situation. So it was pre-built and then reconstructed in the gallery. We wanted to have a space with the same density of a painting composed of several layers. Something that has difficulty emerging in an exhibition space, somewhat like the Merzbau – made from impulses, in an erotic fashion - and with a few perversions or randomly followed paths like using coloured neon lights that add a gist of the psychedelic or the placement of paintings within a space that is already a work.

This piece is a space within a space, like those gastronomic delicacies: a bird in a bird, in a bird. The space created invites the viewer to move in a certain way. Does this then make the viewer the performer?

2010-01-16T22:20:00.003Z

A KILLS B - LISBON, PORTUGAL 2009
SOLO PAINTING FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR
performance project for ZDB / Galeria Zé dos Bois
(with Cara Manning and Filipe Raposo)

http://www.zedosbois.org/

(image by Margarida Mendes)

The lights and some possibilities for the sound were rehearsed but what happened was pure improvisation. The sounds modelated by Filipe Raposo, Cara Manning’s incursions on the clarinet, and João Ferro Martins’s tribal percussion worked as the net that caught the industrial sounds produced by Hugo Canoilas as he burned, painted and destroyed a guitar. This piece is obviously anchored equally in Jackson Pollock as it is in the Fluxus actions or Jimi Hendrix guitar immulation.

2009-12-18T15:21:00.010Z

A KILLS B - WIEN, AUSTRIA 2009

Cabaret Tesla

by Ludwing Kittinger & Fernando Mesquita

performance at Ve.Sch – Verein für Raum und Form in der bildenden Kunst

http://vesch.org/

TWO STAGE TRANSFER DRAWING (sharing the present) 2009

after Dennis Oppenheim

Performed by Ludwig Kittinger and Fernando Mesquita

As A runs his finger along B’s back, B attempts to duplicate the movement on the wall. A’s activity stimulates a kinetic response from B sensory system. A is, therefore drawing through B. Sensory retardation make up the discrepancy between the two drawings, and could be seen as elements that are activated during this procedure. Because A and B are from different cultural backgrounds, B’s back (as surface) can be seen as a cultural portal for A ... in a sense, A makes a contact with a completely different aesthetics.

2009-02-16T14:13:00.010Z

A KILLS B - CALENDAR 2009
Produced by A kills B and Inc. livros e edições de autor

http://blog.inc-livros.pt/

Offset edition of 500

2009-02-14T16:59:00.007Z

SEOUL 7 A.M. 2008

A small performance made in Seoul using in a repetitive way the exercise machines that can be found on the street as part of the urban furniture. The sound that adds ironic density to this action comes from a tape that was heard being played on the street and purchased. The music is repeated with slight chord variations on the A and B sides of two tapes; however these differences were mostly imperceptible to anyone that doesn’t understand Korean.

THE FOUNTAIN 2008

Homage to Duchamp and Nauman. A fountain that evidences the strangeness of this society: a certain technological kitsch that grabs people’s attention for five minutes. Once again A kills B attempted to respond to this situation by proposing an invitation to the viewer: an invitation to sit and to be, just for a given period of time with the work or even with eachself.

2009-02-09T02:02:00.008Z

A KILLS B - SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA 2008
YELLOW MONOCHROME
performance and installation project for Nam June Paik Art Center
(with Park Seung Jun and Lee Tae Yoon)

http://njp.kr/ff_eng.html

2009-02-09T01:49:00.003Z

PLACARD ANNOUNCING YELLOW MONOCHROME, SEOUL 2008

2009-02-09T00:59:00.005Z

YELLOW MONOCHROME 2008, performance photos by André Gonçalves

All these performances originate in a shared principle: to enrich the experience of the monochrome, making it something erotic, something Dionysian and to establish a link between sound and colour that may be disparate and random and yet enriching to the experience of the performances.

The Green Monochrome has its origins in João Ferro Martins’s wish to destroy his old drum set as in a cult and Hugo Canoilas background in monochromatic activities. Canoilas chose the colour green because of its passivity and established a relationship between opposites since Ferro Martins’s jam session was extremely powerful, more in to thrash or punk.

The Pink Monochrome was the first one to remain as an installation and also included the decision to include an electric guitar by João Cabaço. This contributed to greater complexity in the improvised music.

For Yellow Monochrome, at Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, A Kills B had been reading Kandinsky’s The Yellow Sound and chose this as the colour for the piece. For this event two Seoul-based musicians, PARK Seungjun – a noise musician on the electric guitar, and LEE Taeyoon on the bass guitar - were also invited to participate. This time everyone rehearsed more than usual and the context was more institutional. The installation was less precarious and an additional layer of paint was even added to cover all the objects more evenly and confer a more formal aspect to the compositions made of shapes and lines, some created by chance or due to the functionality of the action. The final purpose is to allow the public to go inside the installation.

2009-02-09T00:36:00.001Z

YELLOW MONOCHROME 2008, installation views

2009-01-21T13:12:00.005Z

VOANDO SOBRE HANÓI
FLYING OVER HANOI
2009
mixed media on paper
70 x 50 cm

2009-01-21T13:07:00.004Z

TÉNIA BRANCA (O TEU CORPO É ABSTRACTO)
WHITE TENIA (YOUR BODY IS ABSTRACT)
2009
mixed media on paper
100 x 70 cm

2009-01-21T12:55:00.004Z

SANGUE E OLHO NA ESTEIRA
BLOOD AND EYE ON STRAW MAT
2009
mixed media on paper
100 x 70 cm

2009-01-21T12:51:00.004Z

PALHAÇO
CLOWN
2009
mixed media on paper
105 x 75 cm

2009-01-21T12:46:00.004Z

NOJO (A NOSSA VIDA JUNTOS)
DISGUST (OUR LIFE TOGETHER)
2009
mixed media on paper
105 x 75 cm

2009-01-21T12:40:00.005Z

SR. SCHNITTKE
MR. SCHNITTKE
2009
mixed media on paper
105 x 75 cm

2009-01-21T12:34:00.004Z

LONGE O TEMOR DA MONTANHA
FAR THE FEAR OF THE MOUNTAIN
2009
mixed media on paper
105 x 75 cm

2009-01-21T12:27:00.004Z

IKEBANA OU NATUREZA EXUBERANTE
IKEBANA OR EXUBERANT NATURE
2009
mixed media on paper
105 x 75 cm

2009-01-21T12:23:00.003Z

FOGO GREGO SOBRE MAR VERTICAL
GREEK FIRE ON VERTICAL SEA
2009
mixed media
70 x 50 cm

2009-01-21T12:17:00.007Z

A MORTE DE EMIL NOLDE
THE DEATH OF EMIL NOLDE
2009
mixed media on paper
100 x 70 cm

At first the sheets were divided in half. Then the drawings each one had made on his side of the sheet were juxtaposed. But, through a violent impulsive inscription, a certain joy or joie de vivre or an experience of total freedom developed these drawings by four hands simultaneously. These drawings are therefore a key to understanding A Kills B’s modus operandi. The titles are a mixture of what each individual imagined for the title, or, in other words each one blurted out the first thought that came to mind as if part of a psychological test; and then both parts were put together.

2008-08-13T18:22:00.011+01:00

A KILLS B - CALDAS DA RAINHA, PORTUGAL 2008
ACTION PAINTING
performance project for ADIÇÃO+ Performance Festival

ACTION PAINTING 2008, performance photos

In front of a small audience, a wall (covered in paper) was painted white with acrylic and oil paint sticks. The intent was for the audience to concentrate solely on the movement of the two bodies produced by this drawing . That is, to place Abstract Expressionism at the origin of artistic performance.

The large scale drawing also intended to evoke an active force of the body, activated in the attempt to develop something new in relation to the previous drawings.

2008-02-25T12:16:00.010Z

A KILLS B - LISBON, PORTUGAL 2008
YELLOW AND BROWN STEREOCHROME
performance project

YELLOW AND BROWN STEREOCHROME 2008, performance photos

The two AkillsB performers waited for people to fill the room and then entered with a bucket of twenty liters of paint each. They set these at their feet and then suddenly grabbed them again and poured the paint over their heads. The paint was yellow in one bucket and brown in the other.

Then there was a ten minute pause. It was as if they were living painted sculptures. The action and mainly the object (each performer as object) is evocative of a protest technique chanced upon in an anarchist magazine showing how protesters in Barcelona would completely cover themselves in paint in a way that prevented or hindered the police from removing them from a certain location. This is a form of silent protest. This is also a way of being on one’s own by being detached from the world, unable to see or hear, isolated by this layer of paint.

2008-02-25T11:38:00.005Z

BANDA SONORA 2007
para automóvel ligeiro e guia sonora

SOUNDTRACK 2007
for automobile and sonorous guideline

The score was written by João Ferro Martins. This made Hugo Canoilas the executor and Ferro Martins the conductor. In other words, Ferro Martins created a concrete score where the musical instrument is an automobile intercepting the rumble strip on the highway at different dynamics and rhythms.

A documentary video and sound recording is planned for this action.

2008-02-25T11:32:00.003Z

A KILLS B - LISBOA, PORTUGAL 2007

PINK MONOCHROME
performance and installation project for the 3rd Painting Prize Ariane de Rothschild
(with João Cabaço)

PINK MONOCHROME 2008, performance photos by Rodrigo Peixoto

2008-02-25T11:19:00.005Z

PINK MONOCHROME 2008, installation views

2008-02-25T11:03:00.004Z

A KILLS B - NEGRAIS, PORTUGAL 2007

GREEN MONOCHROME
performance for video recording

GREEN MONOCHROME 2007, video frames

2008-02-25T09:42:00.004Z

GREEN MONOCHROME 2007, installation views