And Now for Something Completely Different

Mayo Thompson, Paula Ramsden, Kathryn Bigelow, Christine Kozlov, Jesse Chamberlain

And Now for Something Completely Different or Four Songs is the final segment of Struggle in New York, a 1977 documentary by Yugoslavian director Zoran Popović about New York's political avant-garde art scene. Each segment of the film highlights the perspective of a different group in the scene. Art & Language's segment features three musical performances that comprise the final 10 minutes of the 56 minute film.

Watch the first half of the segment on YouTube

Track list

	Still	Booklet page	Track
1.			"A Lot of Sad Feelings...Fan Mail"
2.			"Harangue"
3.			"Plekhanov"

Background

Art & Language's segment was filmed in October or November 1976 in sculptor John Chamberlain's New York studio on 76 Vestry Street. Chamberlain's son, drummer Jesse Chamberlain, a performer on Corrected Slogans, often used the studio space to practice with his bands. The film features members of Art & Language, specifically the New York (Provisional) Art & Language group, in a semi-improvised musical performance similar to Nine Gross and Conspicuous Errors, a video filmed earlier that year. It was one of the New York Art & Language group's final projects before its dissolution circa early 1977.

The posters on display around the set advertise the recent October 1976 issue of Art & Language's magazine Art-Language Vol. 3 No. 4. Passages from the magazine are read during the performance.

The segment's title "And Now for Something Completely Different" is a catchphrase from Monty Python's Flying Circus and the title of Monty Python's 1971 film.

Further reading: Robert Bailey, Art & Language International: Conceptual Art Between Art Worlds, chapter "Keep All Your Friends"

Behind the scenes photos

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Personnel

• Kathryn Bigelow
• Christine Kozlov
• Mel Ramsden
• Paula Ramsden
• Mayo Thompson
• Jesse Chamberlain

Reviews

Chicago Tribune

March 3, 1995

John Corbett

[... Nine Gross and Conspicuous Errors and Four Songs] feature Thompson, center stage, singing, playing and theorizing. While both films are what Thompson calls "artifacts of a historical moment in conceptual art," ones that are "involved in particular political debates within our particular artistic enclave," They're also savvy and funny; in "Four Songs," Thompson, speaking in his most ridiculous German accent, reads a letter sent by an art dealer to Art & Language member Mel Ramsden.

Art & Language International

2016

Robert Bailey