Cosey Fanni Tutti’s history with the ICA stretches back nearly four decades, from the early COUM performances, via Throbbing Gristle’s Desertshore installation to last year’s Cosey Complex symposium. Now, Cosey is part of a new installation called Soundworks at London’s ICA, where she joins 100 other sound artists exhibiting both in the gallery and online (listen to a selection here. Cosey’s 18 minute piece ‘Bioschismic’, "inspired and made possible" by writer Xeni Jardin‘s treatment for cancer, is described by the artist thus:
"Time is defined by and within the human experience yet the dominance of ‘linear’ time prevails. We are inextricably linked with time, ‘Life’ is measured in time. Depending on particular situations our experience of time can be elusive, appear stretched, accelerated, and on occasions all too specifically in synch with defined parameters. Audio recordings, film, Internet, and photography are some of the means by which we choose to mark ‘times’. Such documentary methods signify our need to externalise particular events and also to activate memories.
"’Bioschismic’ is created solely from audio and photographic documentation of Xeni’s time spent receiving chemotherapy. The repetitive drip drip rhythm of the toxic chemicals measured in precise doses over a specific period of time provide the prospect of extending (life) time. Time is the dominant force yet the effects of the drugs change the experience of time to a space that is other worldly – a different time zone – a schism within and for life itself."
