FIVE QUESTIONS FROM THE FIVE
The Society are nothing without its Members and when a Member excels themselves in the field of Re-Enactments, The Five are curious to know more.
So we ask them Five Questions.
Paul Woolford - What Time Is Love? Re-animator
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Well on a basic sensory level, it’s a shorthand way to experience or try to understand something. The old quote attributed to philosopher George Santayana applies here “those who don’t study the past are doomed to repeat it”, although maybe it works both ways. The purpose of a re-enactment, when it’s executed properly casts the subject or event into new light. A re-enactment is a model for a ritual, and a ritual is a bridge for passing into the realm of time/space, cause and effect. We can also view both ritual and re-enactment as gateway belief systems. But before all this, it’s worth considering that you, the reader, are experiencing your own re-enactment right now. Your eyes are working in a similar way to a camera, everything you see is transformed into electrical signals by photoreceptors. Your optic nerve is sending these signals to your occipital lobe in the back of the brain. So everything you are seeing right now is a visual re-enactment, of sorts.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment of What Time Is Love?
Well this happened because I had booked 3 weeks in my diary to produce an artist of enormous global reputation. The way that process was being handled was pretty questionable, so I exercised the power of no and pulled out of that project. It took some deliberation — it was a huge opportunity — but it was the correct decision. Later that same day I found myself communicating with Jimmy Cauty (unusual in itself) and it was clear that I was now free to spend this earmarked time doing something that I truly loved. The universe was telling me to do what the fuck I wanted, not what other people wanted me to do. I learnt, yet again, to always trust gut instinct. I’ve had this idea floating around my mind for years, and in fact way back in the sands of time when I was 15, I had spent numerous evenings making mix tapes from all the various KLF and ambient house-adjacent releases I had at the time. I’d bought this Italian compilation on DFC records which had a version of Last Train to Trancentral from Chill Out, so that was an anchor of sorts. I was purely collaging whatever I could find of note. Not really much different to what The Ancients were doing originally, except with What Time Is Love? Sessions, I chose to apply today’s technology and a policy of reproduction, rather than wholesale lifting of the entire tracks. In approaching it like this, I could expand on the themes and really wallow in them. I’ve had some fantastic tales sent to me from people consuming all manner of pharmaceuticals during their listening sessions with the album.
I’ll be collating them for a special edition down the line, so if any of your readers have similar stories feel free to send them over. It’s been a long road. Overall, I learnt (once again) to prioritise passion over everything, certainly from an artistic perspective.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
An intrinsic part of the whole. Certainly if we are discussing the ENTIRE art world, rather than the heavily curated institutionalised international gallery network. There are still plenty of people who think that thing is “the art world”, but it’s way more vast than a small network of people running interlinked price-fixing cartels. A perfect case study of re-enactment that has made it’s way within the citadel walls is Kara Walker’s acclaimed silhouette-based artwork depictions of the antebellum American South. The dark history of that country’s enslavement of African Americans is depicted in detailed and occasionally violent collage. These works starkly spell out the depraved and shameful past of the US Of A and, and by default they demonstrate the power of re-enactment as a vital medium. You can now see these works in the polished white walls of establishment strongholds, such as LA’s Broad Museum. But beyond all this, there’s a charge that a re-enactment can hold which is undeniable if it’s executed properly. It pushes us to reappraise events and ask questions of ourselves, the work, the audience, the moment, the whatever. The everything.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
I’m going to be a total hypocrite here, after everything I’ve just said, and answer with “it’s been done”
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
Probably the Jura Rites Of Mu ritual for the sheer batshit side of it all.
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Alistair Pulling - An early Golden Re-Enactor
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Reenactments are the stone tape ghost echo of the original events. The cliche goes that history is written by the winning side. But that's not always true. And even if the people who won at the time had books written about them, what survives is down to a mixture of market forces and ideology. Mostly. Outside of that are folk tales and ghost stories. Ghost stories are history told from the point of view of the victim. Or centreing the victim, anyway. Literal reenactments allow for observation from multiple points of view. Lateral ones are a point of view. But both allow for a four-dimensional remodelling of what went before, as they're not just fixed on a page in two-dimensions. This applies as much to reenactments of art and cultural events such as this as they do to horrors of battles or histories. We can learn something and value that experience, and apply the lessons to our lives and they can inform our values.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment, KLFRS006 “Blast Techno At The Sean And Wait” ?
Not much, really.
Okay. Perhaps what I learned was that when you say you're going to reenact something that even only a few other people may be aware of, and throw that out into the universe, not really expecting much, other people will actually turn up and join in. The reenactment was held on a cold, wet, windy night, when most of the world was at home preparing for Christmas. Two other people actually turned up, both invested in the Discordian elements and the significance of the time and date, 23:23 on 23:12:23. I was genuinely afraid that one of them would walk into the sea and never be seen again. If that had happened, the admin side of having to give statements to the police etc would be an arseache, and well, sucks to drown horribly, but abstractly it would have been somewhat magnificent.
The lesson really was to just bloody do things. Don't stay in.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
I'm not really familiar enough with the art world to give a qualified answer to this. Perhaps something about reinvention being the soul of art. Some bollocks like that anyway.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Because so what? The government's burning through millions daily without even making an interesting film about it. And a million quid's not worth what it was back in the day. It's an acceptable rounding-up amount on Elton John's fresh fruit and flowers budget. No one would care.
Now, if you burnt a billion quid, then that might get a brief mention in the Daily Fail's Sidebar of Jailbait, but even then, maybe not.
We're all burnt out on outrage. Million quid missiles are getting dropped on children daily and we can barely make it to a protest about that if we're feeling a bit sniffly that morning.
Though, have you *got* a million quid to burn? Can I borrow a few grand to burn later?
I'll definitely burn it all for you. I promise. Honest.
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
I'd machine gun the music industry elite, but not use sissy blanks. Though that was 1992 wasn't it? Jonathan King produced the event, so was in the audience and interviewed about it afterwards, I seem to remember. As well as being a horrible nonce he once nearly ran me over in his tacky vanity-plate adorned red Rolls Royce when I was a kid, and then made a face at me as if it was my fault. True story. I lived near where he did around the Surrey Hills area at the time. I really hope he genuinely did fear for his life for a second or two when King Boy D unveiled his M16 that day in 1992 at the Brit Awards. But he's like the Anti-KLF, and to be fair, he knew the secrets contained in The Manual and how to have a number one hit years before The Timelords. Except his music was a load of arse and whilst The Manual is knowingly cynical, Jonathan King was trying to make music that kids would like in order to give him access to their unaccompanied bottoms at the Walton Hop for buggery purposes. I'm now slightly sweating and aroused at the thought of machine-gunning Jonathan King...
But if actual violent murder isn't allowed under the rules, then perhaps I'd like to reenact dropping some really great rave era pills and asking 'What time is love?'
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Ian Willett-Jacob - Living on The T-Line and MU2
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Re-enactments are how we channel our passion for the creativity of someone else (or ourselves) into inspiration for creativity of our own.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment of MU2 and your research into the T-LINE?
Outside of all the boring concrete facts, the whats and the wheres that have already been documented, I gained a deeper appreciation for the value of allowing synchronicity (which is what I believe to be the primary force imbued in the T-LINE and perhaps the K-LINE as well) to take you for a ride. I just happened to be in Japan on business on and around 23/8/23, and in fact the original plan was just to re-enact the events in the Top of the Pops clip as pictured - it was only because I revisited the clip to determine the exact location that I realized there was a more important reason we had to go, and everything thereafter was really out of my hands.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
I'm of the opinion that all works of art are re-enactments of some kind, whether literal or lateral, singular or combinative. In other words, I feel that all artists engage in sampling in some way, shape, or form. Familiarizing oneself with the influences that inspired and shaped a piece of art offers key context that I think invariably allows for deeper appreciation of both artwork and artist.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
You know all the big movie trailers with overdramatized covers of pop songs? It would be a bit like that - an ear-catching echo and little more. In contrast, I've always had a fondness for the Smells Like Teen Spirit sequence in Pan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQBGmBOhQEE); it's so bombastic and stupid that I'm convinced it's an earnest, heartfelt re-enactment. In other words, The KLFRS should instead compose a musical retelling the KLF burning a million quid, from the point of view of the cash.
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
Under the umbrella of re-enacting "filming an irresponsibly expensive over-the-top music video for an 8-minute nautical epic", I genuinely think that 20K's "Get Way Down (Far Below the S.S.L.)" from MU 2 is begging for a visual counterpart set on a dilapidated 19th century submersible. Interested investors for this project should contact me directly.
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THE OFFLINE PEOPLE - There's a book they'd love you to lookat with closed eyes.
Why are Re-Enactments important?
I don't know if they are important, but I like the idea of redoing things that others have done before us. it creates a filiation. for me, this calls for an interpretation. Like when you do a cover of a song for instance. Gaston Bachelard would called it "attached reverie".
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment of The History Of The KLF in THE BOOK, Those We Look At With Closed Eyes?
I've learnt to insert myself into other people's imaginations. To create an intermediary world between Drummond & Cauty's stories and my own desires and obsessions. With this one, I've also learnt to make my stories more concise and to create more effective links between the visual narrative and the textual narrative, like in the stories I read when I was a child.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
I'd find it hard to have an opinion on Re-Enactments in general, given that this is the 1st one I've done consciously. But if I had to extrapolate, I'd say i see them like revivals of a play or an opera. It's all about dialogue with the original. You can be reverent, go completely against the grain or find a way to resurrect the creature of Frankenstein once again. To transpose it into another time, into the yellow taxi of Taxi Driver or into the dresses of Marie Antoinette at the time of ouis XVI with a background song by Adam and The Ants playing at full volume.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
ah... that's your problem, you're free to do what you want with your money... it's really your money isn't it?
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
I'd love to re-renact the Drummond and Cauty concert in the Spring of 1990. The one where they played Chill Out on a deserted shore facing the sea, on the island where George Orwell finished his novel 1984. Like the one you hear in Waiting. A synthetic jam session at full volume against the sound of the crushing waves.
Those We Look At Through Closed Eyes by Albine Desray and edited by Julien Demeuzois can be purchased through Alimentation.cc
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The KLFRS Bali Chapter - Re-Enacting In Paradise
Why are Re-Enactments important?
For our team KLF Re-enactments are about inspiring our young artists and musicians to push the boundaries of what is “acceptable”. As the guy in the “Who Killed the KLF?” movie said “not to give people what they wanted, but to give them what they would never forget”.
The KLFRS (Bali Chapter) started one night (23rd August 2023 to be exact!) at a regular gathering of a loose collective of avant-garde and free improvising Indonesian musicians & artists. We were throwing around ideas for our next guerilla art installation, when I suggested we burn a million pounds. Within minutes we were watching Youtube clips of various KLF stunts, and after a couple of hours we had so many “Re-enactments” lined up that we decided we would have to run 5 Events to include them all.
After watching the KLF talking about their crop circles, it was decided that was too Old Skool, so instead we would build enormous sculptures and set them up at night at various famous tourist spots around Bali, to build up the mystery for the Main event on 23rd August 2024 (the 30th Anniversary of the Burning). The name of our project was decided ; The Kadafi Liberation Front (named after one of our members).
We created our Instagram page only to discover the next morning that “the name of your group does not conform to Meta’s guidelines…..”.
The boundaries were being pushed, the magic of Mu was working !
Since then we have :
1/ Filmed the Rites of Mu outside a sacred Balinese temple (see https://youtu.be/u3zXXWsWXxo )
2/ Got banned from the Ubud Writers Festival for “promoting a religious cult”
3/ Made a deal with an Indonesian Army Officer to find us a machine gun for the final performance
4/ Painted our truck orange with a black “K” and added speakers on the top to promote our events
5/ Built a huge pyramid that we are going to load onto a canoe full of fireworks and fireswingers and arrive at sunset on a major tourist beach
So join us on a Journey that you will never Dare Forget !
What do you hope to learn from your Re-Enactment?
How to remain anonymous and out of gaol during a major election campaign !
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
They don’t. No Art Gallery is going to risk hosting us !
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Because most major rockstars would blow that on a launch party, with barely a thought for the poor and the starving….
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
Our highest wish is to fly a group of KLF fans and journalists in a helicopter to a remote Yoga retreat location in Bali and throw a million burning pounds down on them, and see how they react.
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Richard Norris - After-life After-Party DJ, Acid House Pioneer and One of The 400
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Because we need to create a world where both myth and ritual are presented equally. We need both narrative stories, creativity, imagination, as well as action and reason. Both aspects working together. The Re-Enactments are a part of this. As comparative religious studies author Karen Armstrong points out, in her book Sacred Nature, before the 18th century, both myth and ritual were regarded as sacred. Advances in science and technology meant that people began to discount myth as false and primitive. She says "we may be unable to return wholesale to a premodern sensibility, but we can acquire a more nuanced understanding of the myths of our ancestors because they still have something to teach us. And of course we continue to create our own myths, even if we don't describe them as such. The twentieth century saw the emergence of some very destructive myths that ended in destruction and genocide. We cannot counter these bad myths with reason alone, because undiluted logos (reason) cannot deal with deep-rooted fears, desires or neuroses. We need good myths that help us to identify with our fellow human beings, and not just those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. And crucially we need good myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, because unless there is a spiritual revolution that challenges the destructiveness of our technological genius, we are not going to save the planet."
She goes on to say that myths only make sense when translated into practical action. "Myths were not just cautionary tales, they had to be put into practice and were therefore always accompanied by ritual. Ritual, like myth, is often misunderstood in our pragmatic world. Yet ritual ceremonies were indispensible to premodern religion, and they were never wholly spiritual affairs but involved the body and, through the body, the emotions. Carefully crafted rituals making use of emotive music, dance and drama can dramatically bring a mythic event from the distant past into the present... Only if myth is translated into action do we discover its relevance and meaning."
The Re-Enactments are a way of re-enchanting ourselves through myth and ritual. As well as allowing a sense of community, remembrance, and honouring of our families, friends and ancestors. If Mexico and Spain, for example, can honour their families and communities on the Day Of The Dead, wouldn't it be wonderful if other nations, other groups, other people did so too?
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment of What Time Is Love at THE KROSSING AFTER-LIFE PARTY?
That a good tune never dies, it just gets remixed in time loops for 3am eternity.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
Performance Art.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Because it would be a better idea to raise a million quid. And use it amongst the community. It would achieve balance. Go on, I dare you.
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
That time when they drove around stage on electric wheelchairs, dressed up as old men. Was it at the Barbican? Around the millenium? It's a practical suggestion, as less make-up would be needed now! :)
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Annebella Pollen - Kindred Spirit and WDTKFBAMQ explainer
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Re-enactments are interesting because they are ritual performances that can bring new perspectives on the past (although arguably they always tell us more about the present, the time of the re-enactment, than they do about the period they re-enact). The anthropologist, Richard Schechner, has a lovely phrase about performance; he calls it ‘twice-behaved behaviour’. However, there’s a famous saying about time by Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher writing around 500 BCE. He speaks about how it is impossible to stand in the same river twice. His words exist only in fragments and in translation, but his meaning has been interpreted as a powerful statement about the continuity of flux and change. We can do things twice, but each time it will be different because the conditions are different: it is not the same river; we are not the same person.
What did you learn from your involvement in the Welcome To The Dark Ages event?
I learned everything about KLF and the K Foundation, about whom I knew very little before, although I listened to their music like everyone else who was into rave in Britainin the 1980s and 1990s. I also learned about the creative power that can be unleashed when people come together with open minds and a willingness to experiment. Amazing new things were made in three days: bands were formed, tattoos inked, friendships created, bonds tied. My own involvement was as a contributor to the panel hearing, Why Did the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid? Of course, I knew nothing of the reason as an outsider, but I made an outlandish proposition about a continuity of K-focused anti-establishment rebels over a hundred-year period (KLF and the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift) that seemed to go down a storm; it won the public vote for the most convincing theory.
I stayed on and became a page-holder: one of The 400.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
Re-enactments are central to performance art, but I’m most interested in how they have become part of exhibition history. Iconic or influential art exhibitions, which are typically short-lived and site-specific and therefore seen by very few people, have in recent years been the subject of re-enactment or restaging. In a small way, I’ve been involved myself, as I curated a 2015-16 exhibition about Kibbo Kift with Whitechapel Gallery in London, that partly restaged a 1929 exhibition that the organisation had held there. The interesting thing about re-enactments, I think, is when they reflect and critique what theyr eproduce; they then provide new perspectives instead of historical pastiches.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Because it has been done. Because its attention-grabbing power would be diminished. Because there are many more interesting and creative things to do with excess money.
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond), what would it be?
Perhaps the institution of an alternative art award that operates on the same timeline as the Turner Prize? Art institutions have often attracted an inverse formation, like the Salon des Refuses in 1863 France, established to house those artists refused space in the official Salon. The 1993 Turner Prize action by the K Foundation might bear repeating.
The Kindred Of The Kibbo Kift - Intellectual Barbarians by Annebella Pollen is currently available to buy and enjoy here
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Jeremy Dellar
Why are Re-Enactments important?
They help us look at history again and differently , they can jog the collective and personal memory too
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment of The Battle Of Orgreave?
I'm not sure i dont really learn anything from my work
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
They are quite common there are even exhibitions dedicated to it
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Because you probably don't have it. It's more a practical question than an artistic one
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
A trip to Jura
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Why are Re-Enactments important?
I'm from Hastings so I've always liked the idea that, should I wish to experience the Battle Of Hastings rather than read about it in history books or time-travel back to 1066, I can visit the alleged battlefield once a year and watch dozens of battle re-enactors whack each other about with swords. It makes sense to me that similar re-enactments can happen in the music world (from the meticulous re-enactments such as Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard's Bowie and Cramps performances down to any Beatles cover band making the effort to dress up and learn a few of Lennon's ad libs).
Re-enacting extraordinary events like the Rites Of Mu seems worth the effort, especially to experience this as the re-enactor oneself.
What did you learn from your time in The HAMMS?
Taking part in The HAMMS reinforced my belief in the importance of following through on a creative impulse without pausing to ask yourself 'Why?' I'm sure neither Ade, myself or any of our co-creators ever questioned one another on why we were doing something, we just did it and helped each other out when needed (often the work of The HAMMS or our other projects was performed mainly by just one of us in the guise of the two). Most of the time it was just a lot of fun to re-enact, rip off or take inspiration from the KLF/JAMS, with no intention or likelihood that our activities would be mistaken for the work of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, at a mid-90s time when the music press was looking for art or events that COULD HAVE BEEN (they thought) the actual KLF in disguise. I don't think there was any underlying long-term plan with The HAMMS (although Ade might disagree), and I'm not going to make claims for one in retrospect, but the spirits of action and imagination have carried through my life ever since: If I think of something creative to do visually or musically, or someone asks me to DJ, play a gig, write an article, make a film, host a Q&A, for example, I just say Yes and work out how to do it from there, rather then get stymied by worry or nerves, and try and avoid questions from my friends like 'Why?' or 'What's the point?' And that definitely comes from The HAMMS and that definitely comes from taking inspiration from the story of the KLF/JAMs.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
I think they're totally valid. I've seen Van Gogh's Sunflowers in Amsterdam (but it isn't the only Van Gogh Sunflowers) and was always curious as a kid about there being more than one Mona Lisa (I may have confused this memory with Douglas Adams' Doctor Who story 'City Of Death'...). So if, particularly from the 20th century, you can have physical art multiples, why not 'event' art multiples in the form of re-enactments. I don't know where the art world would think they sit, but they're valid events.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
No reason not to, if that's what society members wish to do, it's (presumably) their money they may be burning. I was always very pro The K Foundation's money burning and attempts to find out the reasons why. And I've never been in any way close to having a million quid (The HAMMS always did everything we ever performed or made for free).
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
Burning all my LPs (nb: The HAMMS never made a vinyl LP) in a field in Sweden. The photos made it look like a beautiful way to spend a day. (When I eventually visited Stockholm, I did traipse through a snowstorm to visit Polar Studios, much to my wife Carolyn's reluctance. I just had to, and that was as much JAMS inspired as ABBA inspired).
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Andy Gell - Solid Gold Mirror Holder
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Re-Enactments help us to remember. They let us Re-Mix the past and enhance the bits we like.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment?
Writing a book is hard. Writing five books is harder. Writing five books in three years is beyond silly. But, for me, the story had already been written, the only thing I had to do is get it down on paper.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
All I know about the art world is that I should probably know more, but life gets in the way, doesn’t it. I’ll just go for something pompous, like All art is just a Re-Enactment of Plato’s original shadows on a cave wall and that sone people are still happy looking at the shadows.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
When the government are burning £4 billion of unusable PPE bought from their dodgy donors and claiming that it is an innovative way of generating energy, you need to have a rethink. £4 billion pounds in 2022 was the equivalent of nearly £2 trillion. That’s two million Jura boathouses.
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
The presentation of the Gold Disc to FakeAgnetha in Stockholm, but this time around present a holographic Gold Disc to AbbatarAgnetha.
Andy Gell’s self-published library of books detailing events and expressing opinions are still available from a website he still insists on calling Amazaba. His claim that his WTF compendium is twice as heavy as 2023: What The Fuuk Is Going On? by The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu remains untested in a combat environment.
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Matt Porter - maker of models
Why are Re-Enactments important?
All these memories can be lost in time, like tears in the rain, thus re-enactments document the facts or fiction of the KLF for future generations to consume and enjoy.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment?
Re-Enactments, I have created many!
CG video renders of Solid State Logik 1, Solid State Logik 2 and Come Down Dawn, taught me that rendering vaguely realistic CGI video takes a very very long time.
3D Printed Pyramid Blaster.
I learned to create 3d models using a variety of software packages. I spent time researching the 'blaster' in order to make the model authentic.
3D Printed USB Speaker stack.
I learned how to create products incorporating existing products in order to create a working USB stick based on the speaker stack and thus re-enact the front cover of The White Room.
3D Printed Bluetooth Speaker Stack.
I re-enacted the speaker stack again, but this time with a built-in Bluetooth receiver, amplifier and speakers.The case was 3d printed, modelled by me.
"The T-Shirt" and "The Mug" (The Manual Re-Enactment), I learned that Compacta font comes in many guises.
I learned that T-Shirt printers are not to be trusted and Mugs break in the post.
Ice Kream Van 1:43 Re-Enactment.
This forms a separate chapter of its own and it was so time consuming and frustrating to kreate, from creating waterslide decals to creating further re-re-enactments of KLF
and related miniatures to place inside the vehicle, kreated original packaging for the van and skrabbling around the internet looking for donior vehicle. It continues to provide
frustration and enjoyment with the hope of miniaturising sound boxes and creating brand-new decals in line with the release of 1987 by the Ice Kream Van
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
They belong in the art world, in the same way that Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans belong, they become an interpretation of life experiences to be appreciated and enjoyed
or laughed at. Calling it avant-garde would be slightly underplaying its importance.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
If they have it, then crack on, however, they might instead try to kreate their own interpretation of the act of burning a million quid. You can buy 100,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars for around £2.80 on ebay,
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
I would like to re-enact the Bold Street 2017 entrance of the Ice Kream Van using stop motion and my own 1:43 models.
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Liam Saunders - follower of GANTOB
Why are Re-Enactments important?
They are a vehicle for learning from the past and passing on knowledge.
What did you learn from GANTOB’s Re-Enactment?
To live in the moment and not fear spontaneity, to embrace things out of the ordinary.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
Uncomfortably
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Why shouldn’t they?
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
I would Re-Enact the K Foundation Art Award
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Caroline Moscrop - follower of GANTOB
Why are Re-Enactments important?
Re-enactments are important because it keeps the spirit of the KLF, the JAMs alive and allows people all over to take part and share in something special. It also opens up new avenues and creativity and spreads to new people. It encourages adventure.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment?
I have learned to get up and get out and enjoy adventures, that’s it’s good to meet new people, try new things and be more free and it’s ok to feel and to dance and just break out of the doldrums.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
Re-enactments, I think, share art with a wide audience, it’s free and open to anyone. I love the idea of more people accessing art and if the re-enactments are something that has been enjoyed previously then it’s warming and bringing art to a new audience is a rich experience so I think its valuable within the art world, it’s visual, musical, literary, abstract art.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Personally I don’t care if the KLFRS burn a million quid, it’s not something that anyone else has any claim on. Perhaps morally, ethically it could be argued that a million quid could be put to use for the benefit of others, given to good causes. I’m skint, I’m comfortable being skint, I live quite nicely and don’t worry about material value of much as I’ve never had anything of much value, I don’t scrounge off anyone - but I do have a home, I am warm and I can eat so don’t know the struggles of some people. Maybe I’m selfish saying I don’t care. There are a lot of charities that would love a share.
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
I would love to drive an ice cream van, I would just love to dance or to battle a dalek I think this one needs more thought, or perhaps ideas will come to me during the night when I can’t sleep. I wish I was artistic and could produce something special, I’m not and I can’t. A small (slightly ashamed) part of me would love to shock an audience who thinks they’re incredibly important by firing a machine gun over them. I feel bad for that one, sorry.
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GANTOB - The summer belonged to them.
Why are Re-Enactments important?
I think that the KLFRS categories of re-enactment are very apt (recreate, reposition, destroy or destruct). Re-enactments have many different purposes. They can be a celebration, cathartic, creative or conciliatory. They can help establish the "truth" as we now see it, or explore how things might have worked out in the past. For many people they will be the only chance they have to experience a past event, apart from reading about it, or watching a video. Re-enacting allows interaction with fellow participants, and discussion and dialogue. Music shows how new technology or advances in understanding of harmonies and rhythms can push things on (look at jazz creating updated versions of classics for each new era, decade by decade).
Re-enactments have, however, the potential to devalue an event, so care is required.
There are some things I would like to see re-enacted, but many others that I would not. Re-enactments are not a panacea.
What did you learn from the Re-Enactment of The Battle Of Orgreave?
I have not re-enacted the Battle of Orgreave. I have, however read Jeremy Deller's account of re-enacting the battle, and other descriptions. Because of where I live, if I were to hold such a re-enactment I would invite former miners and policemen and horses from central Scotland to Culloden battlefield. They would have had run ins during the 1980s, but not full riots. After providing a slap up meal in the National Trust cafe, seating the two groups separately, I would line the miners and police up facing each other in the positions of the Government and Jacobite armies. The contrast between the sides would be striking (apologies). Some of the miners would be in wheelchairs and receiving oxygen. The police, though a similar age as the miners, would look younger and fitter, having retired at a civilised age. There might be some posturing, some ill feeling initially. But after squaring up both sides would meet somewhere in the middle of the battlefield and start talking. Some would know each other through living in the same communities. They would be working through the conciliation mentioned in answer 1. After an hour they would retire to a pub somewhere in Inverness. They would sit wherever they liked. They would no longer be segregated by previous employment, except a hardened few from both sides who sit in two separate groups and who have and will continue the re-enactment in perpetuity.
What did you learn from your Re-Enactment?
Response in the form of a handwritten pamphlet. See below.
Where do Re-Enactments sit within the art world?
Going back to Jeremy Deller, they clearly have some sort of place, if you're a successful artist with a name. The galleries and auction houses won't think much of them, because they can't be sold, unless there's some future where people live in a Truman Show scenario. Perhaps we all are already.
Some art venues have commodified art in a sort of re-enactment. Look at the Van Gogh experience. I've not seen it, so can't comment on that.
In a sense, little is new. Much art is re-enactment anyway. Perhaps we should accept that and take things as they come.
Why shouldn’t The KLFRS burn a million quid?
Because notes are now made of plastic, so it would create an almighty mess. The financial argument and objections on grounds of tackling poverty is irrelevant I think, then and now. Governments and corporations control flows of much greater sums and could divert sufficient sums to tackle the world's problems (indeed some of it, such as fossil fuel reliance, could be drastically cut by removing fossil fuel subsidies rather than spending new money).
If you could Re-Enact any of the activities of The KLF and The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu between the 1st of January 1987 and the 31st of December 1991 (and Beyond) what would it be?
Building on answer 1, I would choose to recapture the spirit of Duy Khiem's contributions to Mẹ Ru Con and Next. I would do this with a musician I did not know, and a track I was yet to write. I would keep going until I had a track that reminded me of no other piece of music that any of the musicians had ever heard.
