Saturday 10 May 2008, 19.00

To kick-start its London series, Fashion in Film Festival (FFF) presents this vibrant programme of newly commissioned films and videos. Exploring a range of subjects such as cursed clothing, obsessive gestures and desires, and the history of the cinematic slap, eight artists have collaborated with the Festival to create new films that explore the themes of 'If Looks Could Kill.'

Weaving together the work of photographers, performers, designers, artists and film-makers, the programme takes a long hard look at the fixations, joys and fears that can become attached to garments and styles of dress. The Co-conspirators artists are: Paulette Phillips, Eloise Fornieles, Elizabeth McAlpine, Dino Dinco, Shannon Plumb, Wendy Bevan, Derrick Santini and Boudicca.

The approaches include Paulette Phillips' re-sequencing of Hollywood film clips, emphasising the viewer’s pleasure in watching female criminals, and the visual codes in styling and clothing that mark them as seductive deviants; Derrick Santini follows a pair of gloves that encourage whoever wears them to commit the criminal act of frottage; and Shannon Plumb focuses on New York street corners and our identification of criminals by their clothing, performing as several different characters in order to subvert our assumptions about them.

Performance artist Eloise Fornieles has collaborated with cameramen who have taken part in an interactive gallery performance in order to record footage for her film, which examines wasted food and clothing, and the relationship between consumption and violence, and Elizabeth McAlpine has choreographed sequences of slaps from the history of cinema, a particularly female form of violence that also traces the history of costume and styling of the 'grand dame.'

Co-conspirators generates a dialogue between several different art forms and creative industries, including film, photography, performance, design and art, and encourages experimentation by artists for whom the moving image is not a primary medium.

Co-conspirators is guest-curated by Louise Clarke and Laura McLean-Ferris.

Artist Biographies

Paulette Philiips' video and installation work employs the sinister and sensitive as she explores 'how people undo themselves'. Phillips is Associate Professor of Integrated Media in Ontario, Canada where she is based and recent solo exhibitions include Monster Tree at Diaz Contemporary, LA, (2006) Dying to Make a Living, at Sparwasser, Berlin (2005) and The Secret Life of Criminals at Danielle Arnaud, London and Cambridge Art Gallery, Ontario (2004).

Eloise Fornieles' practice includes performances, installation, photography, film and collaboration. Fornieles' work explores loss and intimacy often by exploiting the close relationship between beauty and violence. Fornieles recently concluded a trilogy of solo performances at Paradise Row, participated in group exhibitions at Haunch of Venison and Bischoff/Weiss and has also exhibited in Seoul, Albania, Israel, Paris and New York.

Elizabeth McAlpine is an artist working with installation and time-based media to test and highlight repetitions and gestures inherent in popular media. Her recent exhibitions and screenings include: Imaginary Solution, Spacex, Exeter; Sedimentary Sight, Ballina Arts Centre, Ireland; The Air is Wet with Sound, Rekord, Oslo; Smoke and Mirrors, Mac, Birmingham; I love cinema and Cinema loves Me, Camden Art Centre, London.

LA-based artist, photographer and filmmaker Dino Dinco has shot collections for Bernhard Willhelm, Levi's, American Apparel's infamous ads as well as editorial commissions including V, i-D, Dazed & Confused and BUTT. Dinco's work has also been featured in publications such as Archeology of Elegance: 1980-2000 Twenty Years of Fashion Photography and Bronwyn Cosgrave's Sample - 100 Fashion Designers, 010 Curators.

Shannon Plumb is a New York based artist, with has had solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Germany, Austria and at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Ct. Plumb's work has been included in many group shows including Human Game curated by Francesco Bonami, Maria Luisa Frisa and Stefano Tonchi; Torino Triennial; i-Dentity, Fashion and Textile Museum, London, UK and PS1 Long Island City, NY.

Wendy Bevan's photography draws on antiquated ways of image-making, making a conscious choice to use the traditional media of film and the Polaroid as a formal statement. Bevan works regularly on photographic commissions for i-D, Russian Vogue, Exit, The Independent, 10 Magazine, Nylon, V Magazine, POP, Tank and Wig.

The work of the London and New York-based photographer and filmmaker Derrick Santini explores notions of subtext and the 'underneath' in relation to the surface. Frequently appearing in magazines such as Flaunt, i-D, and FHM Collections, Santini's advertising work includes campaigns for clients such as Jordan, Nike, Reebok, Levi's, K-Swiss and Heineken and his music photography includes editorial spreads of Muse, Lil' Kim, Lily Allen, Jamelia, Finley Quaye, Lupe Fiasco, Lady Sovereign, Queen's of the Stone Age, and The Cardigans.

The British designer duo Zowie Broach and Brian Kirkby launched their fashion label Boudicca in 1997, and now produce couture and ready-to-wear collections shown internationally. Boudicca have participated in a number of exhibitions including Lost and Found (1999), Skin Tight (2004), Malign Muses: When Fashion Turns Back (2004) and The Fashion Architecture (2005).

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£5 (£4 concessions), booking recommended