Mark Dean: Scorpio Rising Double Bill

Mark Dean will be introducing and showing a double bill of the original 1963 Kenneth Anger film, Scorpio Rising, followed by his own work, Scorpio Rising 2 (The Gospel according to St Matthew/Hells Angels on Wheels), 1997. Adjacent to the main space will be a screening of Mark Dean's Scorpio Rising 3 (FFYR), 2012.

Mark Dean (born London, 1958), works with video/sound installation and performance, focusing on reinterpreting elements of cultural material. Since graduating with an MA Fine Art from Goldsmiths College in 1994, Dean's work has become increasingly directed towards the relation of contemporary art and religion. In 2010 he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. Recent exhibitions include My Mum (V2-Sensitive) at Beaconsfield, London 2011, Vortex Revisions at Tate Britain 2011 and The Hand at Works|Projects, Bristol 2010.

The original Scorpio Rising intercuts scenes from a Biblical film with Kenneth Anger's own biker footage. According to Anger, the Biblical film was mis-delivered to him whilst he was in the process of editing his own footage. Anger was influenced and informed by the occultism of Aleister Crowley, describing himself as his disciple, suggesting that his appropriation of religious footage was a deliberate inversion of meaning.

Conceived as a remake of Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising, Scorpio Rising 2 (The Gospel according to St Matthew/Hells Angels on Wheels) mixes biker and biblical footage by presenting two films simultaneously. Hells Angels on Wheels by Richard Rush and Pasolini's Gospel According to Matthew are shown on a split screen, with no additional editing to the footage. Although the choice of subject matter was very specific, as is made evident by the meticulous naming of chapters, Dean is interested in the meaning which arises when authorship is surrendered to a process.


Scorpio Rising
1963
Video and sound projection
Kenneth Anger
27 minutes

Scorpio Rising 2 (The Gospel according to St Matthew/Hells Angels on Wheels)
1997
Video and sound projection
Mark Dean
130 minutes

Scorpio Rising 3 (FFYR)
2012
Three channel video and sound
Mark Dean
4 minutes


Introduction and screenings will start at 7pm.


MARK DEAN: SCORPIO RISING DOUBLE BILL is a one-night event running alongside our current exhibition, AFTER/HOURS/DROP/BOX which examines the influence of the music video and its relationship to contemporary art.