The Last Tape is a new commission by British artist Haroon Mirza. The work, comprising film and sculptural assemblage, sews together Krapp’s Last Tape (a one-act play written by Samuel Beckett) and Mirza’s exploration of post-punk pioneers Joy Division.

The Last Tape, featuring actor and musician Richard ‘Kid’ Strange, is a reinterpretation of Beckett’s play in which its protagonist, Krapp, looks back at the events of his life as recorded onto tape each birthday. Using previously unrecorded lyrics written by Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, the film depicts Strange enacting the lyrics onto magnetic tape. Strange engages with both the lyrical content and the audible sounds created by the accompanying sculptural works, which includes furniture, turntable, radio, and LCD screen stripped of its backlight and casing, in a performative manner. An awkwardly balanced strobe intermittently illuminates the screen, indirectly referencing Curtis’ epilepsy.

The exhibition is presented in VIVID’s project space in Eastside, Birmingham from Thursday 23 September to Saturday 16 October 2010.

Labels: Ian_Curtis, Joy_Division

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