Sean Dower: Artworks and information
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Prehistory: Beached percussion, Pays Basque 1982 |
Far from killing music, the cassette revolution allowed bands to distribute their own material. Dower began experimenting with electronics and percussion and joined the Midlands based band Death Magazine 52 in 1983. |
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| ......................Death Magazine 52 / SHC - Cassette tape 1983 Death Magazine 52 / Spontaneous Human Combustion made provocative audio-physical performances using tape machines, electronics, percussion, super-8 films and other visuals. They performed at Richard Strange's Slammer club in London and at the Equinox Event at the London Musicians Collective, as well as at numerous venues around Birmingham and the midlands. The band often mislead promoters in order to gain live slots at unsuspecting venues, which usually resulted in extreme audience reactions. Listen to: 'Definite' by Death Magazine 52 (13.37 min.) Live performance at Queen Mary's High-School for Girls, Walsall. 28.9.83 |
Flyer for the infamous Equinox Event, London Musician's Collective 1983. |
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| ..............................................Curfew recordings 1984. The Curfew recordings were made at night in a disused, industrial storage silo in Derwenthaugh, near Newcastle Upon Tyne. The acoustic recordings were made in collaboration with John Smith (performance artist and publisher) and John Mylotte (from the band Metgumnerbone). The huge steel cylinder had been used for bitumen storage and had an exceptional ambient quality. The resulting recordings had no effects added to them and were made using a range of instruments, including bowed metal, human thy-bone trumpet, bull roarers, and the steel structure itself. |
Curfew Recordings, video/sound (2004/1984) 4 min. excerpt from 23 min. |
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| A Damn Near Run Thing at London’s Jubilee Gardens in 1988. In 1988 Dower began working with the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, a performance art group based in London’s East end. Richard Wilson, Anne Bean and the percussionist Paul Burwell formed the ensemble in 1983 and Dower worked with them from 1988 to 1992. The Bow Gamelan toured internationally, fusing performance, pyrotechnics, sculpture and sound into large-scale, chaotic live events. |
A Damn Near Run Thing 1988. Archive image of the performance. |
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| The Ketford barge at Waterman's Arts centre on the Thames at low tide 1989. Dazzle painting design by Sean Dower (after Norman Wilkinson). The Ketford was restored for The Navigators, a series of live performances by the Bow Gamelan on the Thames, from Bow in the East to Richmond in the West. The performers lived and worked on board for several months. |
Basle 1991. Dower experimenting with a kinetic sculpture. See video at www.performanceonfilm.com |
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Body music suit 1993 (left: front of suit, right: back of suit) |
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| Dick Donkeys Dawn 1997-1999... See separate page on the band: |
Dick Donkeys Dawn - the DVD... Videos & More info on band | ||
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| Performance at Netwerk Centrum, Aalst (Belgium) with Guy Bar-Amotz 2004. The performance accompanied the exhibition Scahbbernak. In the exhibition, Dower presented videos filmed in Sri-Lanka with the intense sound of a tropical forest playing through the 'Mochilero' backpack sculptures of Bar-Amotz. |
Video of live performance and exhibition at Netwerk Centrum, Aalst. November 2004. 8 min. Also viewable here: |
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Sonofapup is a name given to solo electronic music projects since 1995. Sonofapup: 2nd Generation. Obscure music videos: www.youtube.com/user/sonofapup |
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Sonofapup: Double CD of electronic music tracks made between 1995 & 2004. |
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| 20 Pieces of Silver - Performance at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 26.07.07 Collaboration with Richard Wilson. Presented at Ikon East Side, as part of the exhbition, 'How to Improve the World'. |
Other Collaborations: 7x7 took place on Richard Wilson's Slice of Reality with seven performers choreographing seven sequences. Audio Addiction took place at Delfina Studios, London with Guy Bar-Amotz, Sean Dower, Natsuki Uruma, Richard Wilson and z'ev. |
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 Break it Down - A performance 2006. Performance photographs and information > Collaboration with the Artist Richard Wilson at the Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. Live performance with percussion and visual effects. Limited edition DVD produced by the Timothy Taylor Gallery. See video excerpts at: www.performanceonfilm.com |
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| Ghost Drummer performance at the exhibition Brown Noise on 18.10.08. Visible from the street, Ghost Drummer performed for two hours for passers by. Video excerpts - 4 min. (Warning: contains strobe lighting) |
Ghost Drummer, 2008 (photograph) |
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A Blizzard of Noise (Donder op Dender) 2010 - Steve Noble, Richard Wilson and Sean Dower |
Steve Noble on Caskaphones |
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For other Music related projects: see also Video & Photography |
Selected performance videos at: www.performanceonfilm.com Other obscure music videos at: www.youtube.com/user/sonofapup |
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