The Working Class Goes to Paradise: Video

The Working Class goes to Paradise performance consisted of three rock bands playing simultaneously for four hours, twelve women dancing and Linder. The audience were invited into the promenade-style, performance area and were able to view the work from three sides. Some audience members joined in, playing instruments occasionally or partnering with the ritualistic actions of the dancers.

The video documentation of The Working Class goes to Paradise was influenced by Italian film director, Sergio Leone and by the religious practices of the Shakers. Leone invented the extreme close-up in his Western films, often showing ugly and violent acts with unglamorous simplicity. The Shakers (represented by the women in this performance) welcomed audiences to bear witness to their ceremonies - and eventually the camera too. In The Working Class Goes to Paradise, roving camera people were subsumed into the performance.

The final twenty-six minute video represents four hours of performance.

Download QuickTime Video of Linder: The Working Class Goes to Paradise

Click on the links above to open the movie in a pop-up window. The files are large and may take a few minutes to open. Alternatively, to download the files to your own computer for playback, right click and save target as. Follow this link to download the QuickTime Player

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The Working Class Goes to Paradise: Audio

The three audio tracks below have been mastered and edited, to represent three different sections of the four hour performance. The performers started one hour before the audience were let into the venue, performed for two hours with a live audience, and then continued for another hour after the audience were instructed to leave. Each track is a discrete element and can be listened to individually, or together to make a complete set.

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The Working Class Goes to Paradise: Credits & Licensing

Performers:

Keith Baxter, David Blackwell, Lindsey Brown, Simon Burford, Jo Clayton, Di Cuming, Samuel Dale, Ian Devine, Alison Dixey, Helen Dixon, Sue Doherty, Claire Flower, Sean Fryers, Nina George, Laurence Hamilton, Martin Hodgkins, Michael Hodgkins, Linder, Bev Liver, Ben McCabe, Dean McPhee, Tom Myall, Paula Nixon, Nick Palmer, Lynn Robinson, Maxwell Sterling, Angela Sutton, Jo Wade.

Bands:

Baby Judas
The Pylon Boys
3D tanx

The Paradise Experiments video:

Jenny McCabe

Documentation Use and Licensing:

These audio and video archives are licensed under an Attribution-Non-Commercial Share-Alike 2.0 (UK - England and Wales) Creative Commons Licence. As licensed by the original Author.

Terms of the Licence: You are free to copy and distribute the work in conjunction with this licence. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. See here for further information on Creative Commons.

Stills from video © Tate

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