Ritual for Elephant and Castle - an interview with Marcus Coates

Ritual for Elephant and Castle - an interview with Marcus Coates

21 May, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

This month, as I'm sure you'll be intrigued to read, I have been mostly thinking about Elephant and Castle. Large sections of the area have been scheduled for development for years, and the sense of finality makes this an interesting place to be right now. Last week saw a trip to The Elephant Rooms, a new gallery space in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre, and now I find myself chatting to Michael Smythe of collaborative art venture Nomad and contemporary performance artist Marcus Coates. We're sitting outside the lovely canteen at Rochelle School in Bethnal Green, and in the clear May sun, it's a bit of a mental journey to the crenellations of the Castle.

But journeys are what these two specialise in, and journeys are what we're here to talk about: specifically the journey that will be A Ritual for Elephant and Castle. This is a performance/party at the Coronet born out of collaboration between electronic music collective Chrome Hoof, experimental folk types, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, and Marcus himself. Michael explains how the whole project came about: 'I've been working with Marcus for a couple of years now and we were just talking about popular culture and different ways for Marcus to operate as someone who solicits social engagement in one way or another, usually through some kind of absurd act. Nomad is concerned with processes that challenge individual practices – getting people to work with people that they wouldn't normally work with, to do things in different ways, and to see what comes out of it.'


Chrome Hoof
photo by Steve Bliss

After exhibitions like Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art last year and Riflemaker's Voodoo show this year, it seems that there is an increasing interest in the concept of the ritual in contemporary art, and indeed society. Marcus puts this down to a natural development: 'I think it simply reflects what's going on in society really. There's a need to believe in something else, particularly now after the collapse of consumerism and capitalism. But people are reluctant to engage in things like religion or New Age self-help, so ritual can serve that purpose.'

'Also,' Michael adds, 'in terms of the art world, the work produced in the last decade has been incredibly decadent. Look at Frieze – it's revolting. There's a whole generation of artists who make work simply for commercial galleries. That's one side of the ecosystem that is the art world, but it's got to such a ferocious point that I think people are looking for something that's a bit more vulnerable and a bit more, kind of, engaging.'

But what do the residents of Elephant and Castle care about weird arty rituals? Marcus explains: 'Ultimately I want this to be functional, and I think that's quite an unusual thing – the idea of art being functional. And overtly functional too.' In order to do this, Marcus and Michael immersed themselves in local Elephant and Castle life: they met with local residents, chatted to developers, members of the local council and policemen.

'Well,' Marcus elaborates, 'I went to visit the local council and spoke to some of the project managers there. I took them on an imaginary journey. They all sat there and closed their eyes and went to their own imagination. I didn't want the official script on what the development was about. I wanted to hear about the investment that individuals were personally making in it, their personal vision. Developers often use the word vision so there's quite a nice crossover between that and what I'm doing.'


Marcus Coates, 'Journey to the Lower World', Beryl 2004
photo by Nick David

'And we also lived rough on the Heygate Estate,' tells Michael. 'We slept rough in the derelict areas. We met kids smoking crack, who were terrified because Marcus was carrying round a big bird of prey the whole time. And we were terrified. But they ended up mucking in with us and telling us stories and smoking their crack while we were trying to sleep. They became our protectors in a way.'

'So,' concludes Marcus, 'the ritual is all about giving a voice to all these different points of view, finding a voice for the place and finding a heart for the place, and seeing what that is, if it has one. But also everyone's really up for this because it's basically a party.'

At this stage I'm still not exactly sure what to expect from the Ritual itself. I know that Wildbirds and Peacedrums will be performing with 20 drummers, that Chrome Hoof will be doing their amazing psychedelic prog thing, and that Marcus will be wearing a horse's head. But aside from that, it's anybody's guess.

And that's kind of the point. The idea is take people on a journey, one that for Marcus, 'needs to go far enough to have some kind of insight into what's happening. And hopefully I'll be able to take some people with me and provide some possible answers. I'm not even sure if I'm going to be able to provide answers. Perhaps I'll have to leave people with the journey and let them make up their own mind.'

Either way, it's definitely going to be worth the journey.

A Ritual for Elephant and Castle is at The Coronet on Friday, 5th June from 7pm.

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Tom Jeffreys