THE WAPPING PROJECT

CONDUCTOR RE-VISITED BY JANE PROPHET

Prophet re-visits CONDUCTOR with a finely tuned film of the original work

14 JANUARY – 15 FEBRUARY 2004

Jane Prophet is one of the UK’s leading artists, and well known for her work in the fields of complexity theory and artificial life. Her site-specific installation CONDUCTOR launched The Wapping Project in 2000, achieving critical and popular acclaim.

THE TIMES, 18/10/2000
“In this piece, sparks of memory and association bridge the new and the old. The Boiler House has become a whispering gallery of the imagination.”

THE GUARDIAN, 13/10/2000
“Conductor is an electrifying cacophony and the stuff of sci-fi fantasy. For The Wapping Project, it is a high-dive springboard from which to launch future artistic wards.”

CONDUCTOR REVISITED, the film made by Prophet of the work, provides a unique opportunity for audiences to reappraise the original installation in the Boiler Room of The Wapping Project, where it will be shown.

Also on show in the Boiler House will be the edited sequence of time-lapse video taken throughout the original run of CONDUCTOR. In the Engine House, monitors will show both the documentary footage and a film from Prophet’s recent week-long installation at The Wapping Project, part of the series of commissions FORTY WHITE CHAIRS; THE FINAL MOVEMENT (23 September – 28 October 2003).

The Wapping Project
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station
Wapping Wall
E1W 3ST

020 7680 2080
Tube: Wapping

Jane Prophet

Jane Prophet is one of the UK’s leading artists and celebrated for her ambitious installation CONDUCTOR, which launched The Wapping Project in 2000. She has been one of the most important figures of digital arts and electronic media for a decade, and is known for her cutting edge work using artificial life forms and virtual ecological environments. Prophet is the joint Director of CARTE, the Centre for Arts Research, Education and Technology.
Among her past projects is the award-winning website, TechnoSphere, which reflects her interest in complexity theory, landscape and artificial life. A real time 3D version is permanently exhibited at the National Museum of Photography, Film and TV, Bradford. Other site-specific projects include Decoy and The Landscape Room; both of which work with the combination of real and computer simulated landscapes.
Works in progress include CELL, supported with The Wellcome Trust SciArt Award (2002), with Neil Theise, a leading figure in stem cell research. THE ‘BLOT’ SERIES is an exhibition of prints and 3D objects to take place at The Victoria & Albert Museum in February 2003. Prophet was a recent participant in a series of commissions at The Wapping Project, 40 WHITE CHAIRS; THE FINAL MOVEMENT (23 September – 26 October 2003).

THE WAPPING PROJECT

The Womens Playhouse Trust (WPT) developed the Wapping Project. WPT is an arts and education charity and also has 501 (c) 3 status in the USA. Since its first production at the Royal Court in 1984, WPT has launched major careers for many writers, poets, visual artists, choreographers, composers, visual artists, filmmakers and photographers. From 1992, WPT began to commission and mount site-specific work in some of the great, disused warehouses in the East End of London and it was during this period that the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station was identified as a potential home.

From 1993, WPT balanced a parallel existence, working at the South Bank, with the BBC and in major theatres, while mounting large scale dance pieces (Lea Anderson’s DIRT, 1993), music works (Nitin Sawhney's ANSWERS FROM THE OCEAN, 1995) and visual art’s pieces (Anya Gallaccio’s stunning INTENSITIES AND SURFACES, 1996) at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. In March 1998 the freehold was secured. A two-year refurbishment programme (phase 1) followed, transforming a derelict site into the building as it now stands.

Since its opening in October 2000, a series of acclaimed works (visual arts, photography, dance and music) have been commissioned by WPT and mounted here, mostly in response to the site and usually on a vast scale. Jane Prophet’s CONDUCTOR (2000), TEN COMMANDMENTS by Keith Haring (2001) (Currently in Rotterdam), SPRING by Elina Brotherus (2001) (Short-listed Citibank Photography Prize), JERWOOD: STAIRWORKS (2001), JERWOOD: SOLO WITH LIGHT (2001/2002) (Three 90 minute programmes, BBC Radio 3), NYC: MAGNUM PHOTOS AT THE WAPPING PROJECT (2002) (recently showing in Essen, Germany) and Richard Wilson’s breathtaking BUTTERFLY (2003) (currently showing in Aachen, Germany) represent some of the benchmarks. This work has toured abroad, been recorded for radio and television and been recognised with a series of awards, while The Wapping Project’s building conversion has become a model for developments in Australia, America and the UK. It remains the only arts’ project in the UK which stays open until 10.30pm, five nights a week, and the only one which houses its own highly regarded restaurant, recognising that pleasure is complex, involving all of our senses, a feel for space and a need to be challenged.

Above all else, the WPT/The Wapping Project has an un-challenged twenty-year record of commissioning emergent artists who have become major players in the UK’s cultural landscape; Anya Gallaccio, for example, was short-listed for The Turner Prize, 2003. The company takes immense pride in this track record.