“It’s a bit of an experiment. We haven’t done anything like this before. In the 60s I suppose they would have called it a happening,” George Barnett of These New Puritans told Another Man last week ahead of the band’s ICA multi-media event and performance, which took place on Thursday, March 21. Held at the ICA to coincide with the release of the Barnett brothers’ latest album, Inside the Rose, the event comprised video projects – created in collaboration with Harley Weir, Daniel Askill and Hans-Henning Korb – an interactive presentation by artist Soojin Chang and a DJ set by Graham Sutton.
The evening culminated in a performance from These New Puritans, amidst a “beautiful but brutal” set designed by the textile artist Freya Don. Of the set, George said: “The best way of describing it is like a painting taking place on stage. It will be like when you go to the ballet and they shine a spotlight through fabric. Everything behind it looks quite angelic. The idea is that we’re inside this prism, performing in our own little world.” Paul Phung’s photographs, taken on the night of the performance, offer a peek into this world: flames, landscape scenes and images of the Barnett brothers were projected onto swathes of material attached to scaffolding, among which the band played from their new record. Head to the gallery below to see more.
