Featuring: a.a.s. / Insectoid / Diann Bauer / Amanda Beech / Mikko Canini / Seth Coston / Rod Dickinson / Pil and Galia Kollectiv / Tai Shani / Francis Upritchard / Roman Vasseur

curated by Pil and Galia Kollectiv

Pump House Gallery
Battersea Park, London
SW11 4NJ

9 April - 26 May    2008

Preview    8 April   2008
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

The Institute of Psychoplasmics is an exhibition about cultic social groupings and how they challenge the integrity of the social body by producing another within it. It takes its name from the eponymous fictional institute in David Cronenberg's film The Brood, in which rage is encouraged to take the form of a cancerous schism within the body. Recreated within the Pump House gallery, the institute will investigate cults, brainwashing, war games, rituals and other explorations of the body politic as a metaphor for the social body, through videos,   paintings, sculptures, sound and object-based installations, live work, a discussion panel and a publication.

The Institute of Psychoplasmics book, featuring writing by Suhail Malik / Amanda Beech / Pil and Galia Kollectiv / Gilad Elbom / Tom McCarthy / Emily McMehen / Travis Jeppesen, is on sale for £15 + p&p via PayPal. Follow the link below to buy in the UK or contact us at
info @ kollectiv.co.uk for international postage:

Read a preview of the exhibition by Saatchi Online's Rebecca Geldard here, a review by Alisdair Hopwood here, another by J.J. Charlesworth from Mute here, and a really interesting response from Mute's Theo Honohan here.

Empire and Daughter Isotope + Insectoid (offsite performance event)

A one off performance by Tai Shani featuring epic prog band Guapo and electroclash diva Angie Reed. Cannibalizing pulp film and fiction through black magic cult rituals, a mini mouse anti-sacrifice of twelve virgins is crowned by five tableaux of notorious Satanist Anton Lavey posing in nudist magazine Jaybird.

Insectoid's hive colonise the stage and perform their own entomological rites, exploring insect behaviour to produce exoskeletal sounds.

See documentation of Insectoid's we.assimilate here.

8 May doors at 20:00, performance 20:30

Shoreditch Town Hall,
380 Old st.
London EC1V 9LP

Exhibition Talk

Tuesday 8 April 2008, 5:30 - 6:30 pm

curators Pil and Galia Kollectiv discuss the ideas explored in the exhibition

Discussion panel+ book launch + Game of War Workshop

Saturday 26 April 2008, 12:00 - 4:00 pm

Discussion with Suhail Malik, Amanda Beech, Roman Vasseur and Pil and Galia Kollectiv to launch the Institute of Psychoplasmics publication followed by a demonstration of Guy Debord's strategy board game by Class Wargames with Rod Dickinson

Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London, SW11 4NJ

T: + 44 (0)20 7350 0523   F: +44 (0)20 7228 9062 www.wandsworth.gov.uk/gallery