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kiss kiss bang bang!
or, the curious death of jean charles de menezes @ the Museum of New Art (MONA) pairs former lovers Missy Wiggins & Billy Conklin for the first time in a public exhibition
September 15 - October 28 condensed and extended with an opening reception: friday, september 15 from 7 to 10pm
Adding almost as an aside: "And that poor boy from Brazil. It was
reported today that no individual police officers involved in the
shooting death will face prosecution, but the Metropolitan police as an
organisation will be charged with breaching health and safety at work
laws. It all sounds like a joke gone bad." "We were all affected that day in London somehow," Conklin says. "The
whole nation I think. It’s been exactly a year now. And we’ve all become
a part of what happened then. To some degree or another. We’ve all
become victims now. And that's truly what this exhibition will
spotlight."
The Museum of New Art (MONA) is located at 7 N. Saginaw, Pontiac. regular hours: 12-6pm Thursday through Saturday tel: 248-210-7560 web: detroitmona.com email: detroitmona@aol.com
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THE SHOOTING OF JEAN CHARLES de MENEZES
by Missy Wiggins
A re-creation of the shooting of Jean Charles de
Menezes by police at the Stockwell tube on July 22, 2005.
Former lover
accuses artist of stealing her ideas
Billy Conklin is England's most dubious contemporary artist. In 2004 after his sculpture of an abused child, Hatrack, failed to auction at its $1.2m reserve (now £686,000), ArtNow magazine put him at number forty-eight on a list of the art world's VIPs. It was the highest ranking for any artist residing in Norwich. An inveterate prankster, Conklin once persuaded a museum director to dress up for the sake of art in a white suit out-of-season. But the latest controversy was ignited in an interview published last month by the Italian edition of Splash. The Croydon-born artist Missy Wiggins - best known for her disturbing installations of art to be destroyed - said she had had an affair with Conklin before either became infamous and that she was the source for many of his ideas. "It was in 1998," she said. "I worked in a gallery at Millbank. All I really did was unlock and lock the door. One day Billy turned up. I didn't know who he was and he tried to persuade me to steal all the works in the gallery. No luck there, he forced me sexually on the sales counter. "And so we saw each other for a period. I've always been repulsed by him though. I guess that was the attraction to start. Then he gave me very beautiful presents, objects taken from his mum's flat." Asked how the affair ended, Wiggins was quoted as replying: "It ended with there being a lot of rivalry between us. Every time that I tell him an idea, he turns it into his own slag." Conklin's output is varied whereas Wiggins, who has over-sized breasts, has remained obsessed with getting her public to contend its ideas about the female body. Nevertheless, there is a similarity between two series of works the artists produced in 2005, both involving London's July transit bombings.
INCIDENT AT TAVISTOCK SQUARE by Missy Wiggins
Confronted with Wiggins' claims this week, Conklin neither confirmed their affair, nor denied specifically the insinuation of plagiarism. Of their alleged romance, he said: "I have the right to remain in silence. Also the best metaphor for our time in the sack." Asked if he had stolen ideas from Wiggins, he said: "As the prime minister would say, I think my car is waiting." Pressed on whether he stole ideas from others, Conklin replied: "In today's art, all you can do in the end is to steal. So it is always a robbery. All of it. And stolen goods only increase in value. And like the best of thieves, artists never give them back rightfully."
THE
ASTHMATIC--
Missy Wiggins
On 21 July 2005, a second series of four explosions
took place on the London Underground and a London bus. The
detonators of all four bombs exploded, but none of the main
explosive charges detonated, and there were no casualties: the
single injury reported at the time was later revealed to be an
asthma sufferer.
PASSING IN BRADFORD
-- Missy Wiggins
The Bradford Riot of 7 July 2001 was brought about as a
result of tension between ethnic communities and agitation
on the part of the far right. Similar riots had occurred a few days
earlier in other North of England towns.
Artist's Ex-Lover Sues over Sex Tape
LONDON - The latest celebrity sex tape
contains 5 minutes of seriously intense hard-core action between British
artist Billy Conklin and former Playmate-turned-artist
Missy Wiggins,
punctuated by dialogue like: “Where’s the zoom on this?”
But like his predecessors in the genre, Conklin’s career is not likely to be harmed at all. In fact, it could even get bigger. It seems what we expect from our celebrities is radically different from what we expect from, say, our politicians. Or ourselves “It makes him more interesting,” says Christina Speaks, curator for Conklin's next show in Detroit. “It gets his name out there. Now, if you or I had our own sex tape released ... we’d be in deep crap.” “It becomes just another medium in which these celebrity artists work,” Speaks added. And so, it would appear that Billy Conklin has little to worry about, despite the shockingly racy nature of his video romp with ex-girlfriend Missy Wiggins, who is now trying to sue Conklin for trying to put it on public display (a trial date was set last week in her lawsuit against him, but is unlikely to interrupt its first screening at Detroit's Museum of New Art.) “It’s possible that more people will look at his sex tape than his art,” says Wiggins' lawyer, Liz Klobinkski. “And maybe that’s a good thing.”
an interview with Billy Conklin Question: Is it true, about the video you plan to install at Detroit’s contemporary museum? Billy Conklin: ENDLESS LOVE I call it. Q: Is it true as rumored? That this is a reenactment of you and the artist Missy [Wiggins] going at it. Sexually. And at it. Without end. Without any climax or conclusion to be found? BC: Absolutely. A disaster of monumental proportions. As much as you can squeeze on the small screen Q: Sex ad nauseum? BC: Yeah. Sex ad museum. Q: And you thought that was important to show? For this exhibition especially? BC: The film portrays an endless loop of love gone awry. Which isn't love at all. Love gone bad. An act of total desperation I suppose. Q: One critic has described it as the "first optimistic tragedy for the new millennium". BC: A one night stand-off. I prefer that. All started with good intentions. The evening of the London tube bombings. It went on until we physically collapsed early morning. A year ago. Looking back we were already done for as a couple. But the horror of the day threw us into each other’s arms that night. One last hopeless bonk. It was as painful as the video is to watch. Believe me. I think Missy felt gutted. I did. We broke up entirely the next day. And haven’t spoken since. Excepting the media. Q: Lawrence Riegert for the Herald has gone so far to accuse you of exploiting the tragedy itself. BC: Absolutely. That’s what artists do. Make a mess of things. Poke at the scabs and keep them bleeding. Keep things fresh. And yeah, there’s something gruesome about that --- whether it’s the tube bombings or Missy’s relationship with me. Q: In the media you’ve stated several times now that the piece isn’t really about sex at all. BC: We were all affected that day in London somehow. The whole nation I think. It’s been exactly a year now. And we’ve all become a part of what happened then. To some degree or another. We’ve all become victims now. But in ways we hadn't expected. In many ways we've invited it into our lives.
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