Alchemy/Schmalchemy – Geoff Bright, Walt Shaw and Gillian Whiteley – operate with a set of practices and activities which play with the idea of alchemy and – consciously parodying notions of authenticity and artifice – schmalchemy. The punning title – Alchemy/Schmalchemy – delineates a disruptive oscillatory space of mischief in which the live performance operates.
The group uses scientific apparatus and they adorn spaces with a range of objects and materials – bottles, coloured liquids, microscopes, pipes, mirrors, projections, from antique projection apparatus, pendulums etc. Acoustic musical instruments are combined with ramshackle low-tech sound-producing equipment: this might include an ancient harmonium (pedal-driven), an old mechanical gramophone alongside low-tech electronics. Soundworks produced have an emphasis on intensity, through highly focused and energised intention, which can build to quite ‘electrical’ levels and then in an instant dissipate, to be built up again in repeated cycles.
Text by Geoff Bright – manifestations in Manchester facilitated by Geoff Bright
WEDNESDAY 1pm 17th October 2018
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
Manifestation VII – Rhodiacéta (Re-) Response
Martin Hall Exhibition Space, Loughborough Listen to a 6mins audio excerpt of the performance here
TUESDAY 5pm 11th July 2017
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
Manifestation VI Manchester
Provocations, Improvisations: Encounters between Art, Sciences & Qualitative Research
Summer Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University
TUESDAY 5pm 6th July 2015
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
Manifestation V Manchester
Provocations, Improvisations: Encounters between Art, Sciences & Qualitative Research
Summer Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University
SATURDAY 9pm 6th December 2013
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
Manifestation IV-Sheffield
Showroom, Sheffield
SATURDAY 3pm 13th May 2013
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
Manifestation III Bradford
New Bradford Playhouse, Bradford
SATURDAY 3pm 24th November 2012
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
Manifestation II Bradford
Fabric, Bradford Watch the video of the performance here
SATURDAY 8pm 28th JULY 2012
Alchemy/Schmalchemy
AlchemySchmalchemy 1
Bank Street Arts, Sheffield