#CASatHome: Anyone Else Isn’t You (2005) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard

This film was online from 12.00, 3 June 2020 to 12.00, 6 June 2020

As part #CASatHome film series we are pleased to present Anyone Else Isn’t You (2005) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Donated to the South London Gallery by the CAS in 2011, it has been made available here for 72 hours only through the generosity of the artists.

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard began working collaboratively at Goldsmiths in the mid-nineties. Initially, their collaborations were performance-based including live re-enactments of significant moments in rock history, for which they became known. Their practice developed to focus on film and video often exploring our relationship to music and technology.

For the work the artists invited 14 young people to talk directly to camera, one by one, about their favourite ‘mixtapes’. In this way they are indirectly coaxed into a confessional mode, talking candidly about love and loss, and the indelible links between music, love and memory. The film cuts between the 14 participants highlight similar moments they recall as well as the contrasts in their experiences.

The work is imbued with a nostalgia for the 1980s and 90s and the practice of making carefully curated cassette mixtapes. This physical, intimate form is contrasted with the digital medium of broadcasting a video diary, documenting a culture veering from private modes of expression to public ones. Yet, the desire to connect and communicate remains a common thread.

Iain Forsyth (b.1973, Manchester) and Jane Pollard (b.1972, Newcastle) live and work in London. Recent solo shows include Kate McGarry, London (2018); Colston Hall, Bristol (2016); Sundance Film Festival, Utah (2014). Recent group shows include Somerset House, London (2019); Barbican, London (2017); FMAC Fonds d’art Contemporain, Geneva (2013).