After London was a week-long residency at the Horse Hospital in London in April 2016, part of the ‘Collective Intentions’ season (curated by Tai Shani).
The residency involved the production of various objects and images in the space alongside performances and film showings. There were two public events: ‘After London (we believe in the assets we do not believe in)’ and ‘After London (nothing is true, everything is permitted)’.
The first event involved a performance by the band Mount, a showing of 0[rphan] d[rift>]’s Black Water film and a rough cut of the Plastique Fantastique/o[rphan] d[rift>] film Green Skeen, as well as a Plastique Fantastique performance, ‘Loops for AI’s to tell their Children’ (this was a reiteration of a performance first presented at Megastores, The Hague as part of As Close to Black as Black can Be, and the second specific version of an initial performance here).
The second event involved performance lectures by Ayesha Hameed and Mikey Tompkins and audio-visual presentations by Joey Holder, Das Thirst and Ben Drew. Mark Leckey’s film Londonateller was also shown. Plastique Fantastique performed ‘After London’.
Plastique Fantastique for the two performances included David Burrows, Simon O’Sullivan, Alex Marzeta and Vanessa Page.
1:
What exactly happened?
Hear the sound of the snake? Can you hear the sound of the snake?
A newly discovered planet has turned out not to be a planet…
It shivered and moaned and spurted globules with a with a shrill cry…
It gobbed into the Thames… a poisonous load… whether in disgust or fun… who knows…
But now… the river is sick… from New Qatar to Dog Island…
Under the bridges the poison flows… the river is deadly…
The governors moved quickly to contain the spread of the toxic wad…
A machine sealed the city’s inner circle… known as the snake…
After London some stayed and some left... the inner circle was left to its fate…
After London the outside knows nothing of what is inside the snake…
After London the insiders know nothing of what is outside the snake…
After London the river is off limits… boiling all… and the sky is off limits too…
After London the bees have the air… nothing inside gets outside…
After London the bees block all helicopters and mobile phone signals…
After London… on the outside… a ring of mobile phone masts became hives…
After London only the inside pulses with microwaves… and talk flies…
2:
On the Outside (of the snake)
After London everyone outside struggles with the flood caused by the comet…
After London everyone sticks with their own kind…
After London the councils of the outside are formed…
After London there is Kid’s Palace, the Marshes of the Dead, the HillyDownUK…
After London the outsiders pay tribute… sacrifices are paid to the snake…
After London the outsiders feed the snake with all manner of goods…
After London, insiders receive the snake’s shit as a gift of food and useful things…
On the Inside (of the snake)
After London you are in or you’re out…
After London, if you are in… there is no way out… even as a corpse… unless…
After London… the insiders run the snake… from the anus to the mouth… but…
After London no insider has got further than the stomach of the snake…
After London… everyone knows the snake will digest and shit you…
After London you still believe in London (as the asset) or you don’t…
After London the law of derivatives rules the inside…
After London every exchange… is a singular contract…
3:
After London every hello/goodbye lasts as long as it takes… and no more…
After London the inside speeds up… goes fasters… never stops…
After London everyone inside is a clever accelerating machine…
On the Outside (of the snake)
After London, outsiders collect the corpses of insiders that float past Dog Island…
After London everyone is laid to rest in the Marshes of the Dead…
After London, after life, the insiders and outsiders are common flesh…
After London, in life, the outsiders and insiders are noise to each other…
On the Inside (of the snake)
After London, the rhythm of the inside and outside never meet…
After London insiders
After London many insiders try to run the snake but meet a sorry end… then…
After London, one day… a miracle! An insider walks out the snake’s mouth…
On the Outside (of the snake)
The insider on the outside is led before the councils and asked… ‘what’s inside?’
You can listen to a recording of the second performance, ‘After London’, here.
