Exhibition26.07.200313.09.2003
OFF-SITE
PAST EXHIBITION

Paul Rooney

There are Two Paths

Exhibition26.07.200313.09.2003
OFF-SITE
PAST EXHIBITION

Paul Rooney

There are Two Paths

This performance, masterminded by British artist Paul Rooney, was based on Led Zeppelin’s rock classic ‘Stairway to Heaven’. It involved two bands one opening with the songs first two verses, followed by the other band playing them backwards, with the lyrics phonetically translated and the music notated accordingly. An idea of a stairway to heaven was thus caught, continually and seamlessly rebounded across the stage, in a strange echoing, the reversal of the song was a smart reference to the prevalent myth, during the 1970s, that secret, even satanic meanings were revealed through playing vinyl discs of rock music anti-clockwise. The finale was aesthetically and philosophically complicated, involving as it did the forwards and backwards versions being played simultaneously.

SHARE
STAY IN TOUCH
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

IKON GALLERY
1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace
Birmingham, B1 2HS

GALLERY: +44 (0)121 248 0708
SHOP: +44 (0)121 248 0711

Ikon is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and Birmingham City Council.

Copyright © 2024 IKON. All rights reserved. Registered charity no. 528892