Bruce Lacey Experience Premiere & Exhibition | The Quietus

Bruce Lacey Experience Premiere & Exhibition

Great British eccentric doc to be unveiled at BFI Southbank on Thursday, plus Camden Arts Centre retrospective from July 7 to September 16

Lovingly assembled by Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller and occasional tQ scribe Nick Abrahams, The Bruce Lacey Experience profiles the multi-faceted artist, robot maker, absurdist director and subject of Ken Russell’s 1962 TV short The Preservation Man (not to mention lawn mowing guest star in The Beatles’ movie Help!). In addition to looking back at his celebrated counterculture happenings, the 70-minute piece promises to "present new pranks and performance art undertaken by Lacey, taking in visits to his artefact-strewn Norfolk farmhouse, the IWM Duxford aircraft museum and the vaults of the Tate."

The documentary receives its world premiere at BFI Southbank this Thursday July 5, followed by a conversation with ‘Professor’ Lacey himself – now a sprightly 85 years old – plus the filmmakers. Tickets for the event can be purchased from here. The Bruce Lacey Experience will then screen at an exhibition of the same name at Camden Arts Centre from July 7 to September 16, co-curated by Deller and art historian Professor David Alan Mellor. It is also set to be released as an extra later this month on the double-disc BFI DVD The Lacey Rituals: Films By Bruce Lacey (And Friends) 1951-2012. Check back in two weeks for a full Quietus feature…

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