Around late 1970-early 1971 Antibodies was formed as a working collective with Charles Garrad and Ken Hickman. Actions were made in the UK and Holland until 1973. Sometimes we would work together on particular actions, at other times we would make individual contributions under the Antibodies umbrella.
Antibodies worked to ‘defend the cultural body from attacks by all kinds of debilitating conventions, styles and dogmatic discourses’.
White boiler suits were worn for most Antibodies actions.
For a busy few years Antibodies travelled far in the cultural bloodstream bringing scepticism and tolerance to those in need! We sometimes worked with David Mayor, Filipe Ehrenberg & disparate Fluxus / Fluxshoe participants: Wolf Vostell, Ken Friedman, Carolee Schneeman, et al.
Antibodies – first fitting of the boiler suit, 1971
Antibodies 1971
In August 1972 Antibodies took part in the ICES Music Train, London – Edinburgh Festival, August 1972. We made a series of actions for the duration of the journey and at the Richard Demarco gallery and elsewhere in Edinburgh.
Antibodies on board the ICES Music Train 1972
As part of the Music Train event I made an Observation Sculpture – one of many similarly titled works done during the 1970s. Each work involved the careful observation and verbal notation of what was experienced for the duration of each piece. Click HERE for the full text of this particular Observation Sculpture.
Antibodies ICES Music Train 1972 Just Looking at You
In February 1973, at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, we presented a number of Antibodies works – including the playing of ‘Fluxus Pingpong’ by George Maciunas. This involved the playing of many games of pingpong using bats that had been altered in various ways: eg. with holes or added bumps, soft materials, etc. This introduced a high level of chance and unpredictability into our already wayward pingpong skills.
Antibodies – George Maciunus Pingpong, MoMA Oxford, February 1973