Twelve

Twelve, Melanie Manchot’s major new multi-channel video installation exploring the intimate stories, rituals, repetitions and ruptures of lives spent in addiction and recovery, will launch at Peckham Platform this May before touring nationally throughout 2015 and 2016.

Over the last two years Manchot has worked in dialogue with twelve people in recent recovery from substance misuse, in rehabilitation communities in Liverpool, Oxford and London. Twelve is directly informed by the subjects’ personal written and oral testimonies; their performances and creative conceptions form part of the final works.

The work connects and collapses individual recollections in which everyday situations, events and activities are rendered dramatic or abstract and infused with tragedy, pathos and humour. Single sequences are shot as continuous takes, referencing iconic scenes from the films of renowned contemporary filmmakers Michael Haneke, Gus van Sant, Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman – a ferry journey across the Mersey, a darkened room looking out on to an early morning street, a car wash, the cutting of daisies with small scissors, the obsessive cleaning of a floor – providing the framework for reflections on remembered incidents and states of mind.

Twelve will be Peckham Platform’s first exhibition to be shown over two spaces – the main gallery on Peckham Square and the vacant high-street shop adjoining the gallery. The latter, 91 Peckham High Street, will include the results of an additional series of workshops between Manchot and local people from Lambeth dealing with addiction. Together, and with the support of the Maudsley Charity (South London and Maudsley Trust) they have created a publication that explores their experiences in the cycle of addiction and recovery and their reactions to Manchot’s video work.

Image credit: Melanie Manchot, Twelve, The Bronson Monologue; multi channel video 2015.