2 Koi Karp

tapes, skreaks, muzak, magick... 2 Koi Karp create worlds using sound, installation, film, costume as instrument and performance. 2 Koi Karp explore the social and transcendence; from childhood play and anxiety; to fetishism and pain; mundanity and the ecstatic. Childish things; children’s voices, primary colours, glitter, toy instruments, lullabies and playroom aesthetics meet intense, psychotic/psychedelic states with howls, snarls, screaks of old tapes and records and eroticised, brutal action. These seeming oppositions are ingrained within the ‘fabric’ of our society and they are to be exorcised through revelation if they are to be seen as they really are; in a Naked Lunch ritual of sound, action and vision. Sexuality and gender is ambiguous, celebrated and questioned in all its forms and guises between sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Tangible and familiar, yet simultaneously unhomely and fractured. 2 Koi Karp’s inception, the first live performance with newly acquired tape players was at a residency in Ibiza with Islington Mill at an event curated by Video Jam. 2 Koi Karp are now associated artists at Video Jam and this has led to collaborations with filmmaker Graeme Cole and New York art/party collective Cheryl. 2 Koi Karp will be playing on the Video Jam stage at Fat Out Fest in May 2014 as well as collaborating with the legendary Charles Hayward. 2 Koi Karp have recently been artists-in-residence at The Penthouse NQ, artist-led live/residency space, as well as being invited to perform at Be Live and Noise Above Noise. These projects have been vital in the development in visual/performative and sonic terms for 2 Koi Karp and has led to collaborations with a range of artists such as Ian Moss (The Hamsters), Gary Fisher and Matt Dalby, Rosanne Robertson and video artist KHOM. The Penthouse also invited 2 Koi Karp to play at Sluice Art Fair to represent the space in Bermondsey, London.