Kunsthall Stavanger is excited to present The Golem - An Inanimate Matter by People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett). The video is part of our Art Video for Kids program.
In the video, the Golem, a monstrous being of inanimate matter from Jewish folklore, is accidentally summoned from a book, and wreaks havoc through a library. Vicki Bennett explains; "For the Golem film we had a golem be summoned in a study of books and try and trash all the books he walks through. I didn't realise until later, but this is reflected in the ongoing war over access to information, and it being hidden or made inaccessible".
The video is a Random Acts Secret Monsters Commission for Animate Projects/Channel 4 (2013).
Kunsthall Stavanger would like to thank LUX - Artist's Moving Image.
Since 1991, British artist Vicki Bennett has been working across the field of audio-visual collage, and is recognized as an influential and pioneering figure in the still growing area of sampling, appropriation and cutting up of found footage and archives. Working under the name People Like Us, Vicki specializes in the manipulation and reworking of original sources from both the experimental and popular worlds of music, film and radio. People Like Us believe in open access to archives for creative use. In 2006 she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive.
People Like Us has previously shown work at, amongst others, Tate Modern and The Barbican in London, Centro de Cultura Digital in Mexico City, Maxxi in Rome and Sonar in Barcelona, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. She has an ongoing sound art radio show called 'DO or DIY' on WFMU. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb.
