Marion Coutts
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Marion Coutts (born 1965) is a British sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, author, and musician, known for her work as an installation artist and her decade as frontwoman for the band
Dog Faced Hermans Dog Faced Hermans were a post-punk band that formed in Scotland in the mid 1980s and remained active through the mid 1990s. They emerged from the UK anarcho-punk scene with a guitar/bass/drums line-up, but also incorporated trumpet and other ...
. In 2014 she published her critically acclaimed memoir, ''The Iceberg''.


Early life

Marion Coutts was born in
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and raised in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Her parents were Salvation Army ministers with whom she traveled extensively. The church they attended had a strong musical tradition that encouraged young girls to play brass instruments, and at age 10 Coutts started playing trumpet for a large Salvation Army band. Coutts' family lived in London and then Scotland where she stayed on to attend college, earning her BA in Fine Art at
Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...
from 1982 to 1986.


Music

While attending college, Coutts joined an improvisational musical project called Volunteer Slavery. Named after an album by
Rahsaan Roland Kirk Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935Kernfeld, Barry.Kirk, Roland" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. '' Grove Music Online''. '' Oxford Music Online''. Retrieved February 1, 2009-. "The yea ...
, the group consisted of three men and three women who "mostly banged on things," including guitars, oil drums, and other percussion. Coutts played trumpet and another woman played sax, and their first gig was a benefit in support of the UK miners' strike. The group persisted for a year-and-a-half without writing any formal songs, though a demo tape was recorded and has resurfaced on the internet.


Dog Faced Hermans

In 1986 three members of Volunteer Slavery wanted to continue on as a more serious band, and Coutts expressed interest in being their vocalist. They named themselves Dog Faced Hermans, after an obscure reference in a Frankenstein film, and began paring down their music into shorter, faster songs that still maintained some of Volunteer Slavery's experimental elements. In addition to writing and singing lyrics, Coutts played
cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. Although they are t ...
and added her trumpet, giving the group a distinctive sound. The Dog Faced Hermans toured the UK and released a few records until moving to
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
in 1989. During this period, Coutts spent a year in Poland on a British Council Scholarship to attend the State School for the Arts in Wroclaw Poland. In 1990 she rejoined her band in the Netherlands, and the group went on to release four more albums. They toured Europe and North America before disbanding in 1995 with various members scattering into new projects around the globe. Coutts returned to the UK to concentrate on her art.


Other appearances

Coutts has also recorded on releases with Dutch musical groups The Ex,
Instant Composers Pool Instant Composers Pool (ICP) is an independent Dutch jazz and improvised music label and orchestra. Founded in 1967, the label takes its name from the notion that improvisation is "instant composition". The ICP label has published more than 50 r ...
, and Dull Schicksal; with British groups Spaceheads and the Honkies; with American group God is My Co-Pilot on their 1994 Peel Session, and with cellist
Tom Cora Thomas Henry Corra (September 14, 1953 – April 9, 1998), better known as Tom Cora, was an American cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock. He recorded with John Zorn, ...
. After a musical hiatus, she recorded on a couple of compilation tracks, but no musical output has been heard from her since 1998.


Visual art

Coutts is known for her non-linear film and video style, often juxtaposed with sculpture to create immersive installations, sometimes with elements that invite viewers to participate in the work. For 1999's ''Fresh Air'', she built a set of three irregularly shaped
ping-pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
tables, which replicated maps of London's Battersea, Regent's, and Hyde Park, each bisected by a table tennis net. That same year ''Eclipse'' took a small garden greenhouse which was periodically filled with artificial fog, fittingly at London's Gasworks Gallery. 2000's ''Assembly'' superimposed film of flocking
starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...
s onto a wooden lectern. In 2001's ''Decalogue'', Coutts emblazoned a set of tenpins with each of the
Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...
. 2002's ''Cult'' beckoned onlookers to squeeze between a configuration of rectangular columns and peer into the eyes of a black cat looped in semi-stillness on nine video monitors. ''
Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...
'' said that, "''Cult'' evokes prehistoric standing stone circles as well as hieratic Egyptian cat sculpture-in ancient Egypt, the cat goddess
Bastet Bastet or Bast ( egy, bꜣstjt, cop, Ⲟⲩⲃⲁⲥⲧⲉ, Oubaste , Phoenician: 𐤀𐤁𐤎𐤕, romanized: ’bst, or 𐤁𐤎𐤕, romanized: bst) was a goddess of ancient Egyptian religion, worshipped as early as the Second Dynasty (2 ...
was the patroness of family happiness." First installed at London's Chisendale Gallery, the gallery describes the work:
The viewer first experiences the group from a distance, the monitor screens providing the only source of light. Moving onto the platform and amongst the screens, visitors are made aware that each cat is moving, but barely perceptibly. From any position, only two or three of the cats' faces are visible. Each cat goes through a cycle of opening and closing their eyes, of waking and sleeping and each cycle remains dogmatically out of sync with its neighbours.
Coutts has enlisted Ex-Dog Faced Hermans guitarist Andy Moor to score many of her short films. Shot on super-8, her 2000 film ''Epic'' follows the adventures of a life-sized model horse as it's ceremonially carried through the city of Rome. 2002's ''No Evil Star'', named for the second half of a well-known palindrome, shows closeups of live mealworms colonizing a clay city. Moor also scored ''Twenty Six Things'', a film that Coutts comprised from artifacts collected by
Henry Wellcome Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (August 21, 1853 – July 25, 1936) was an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company with his colleague Silas Burroughs in 1880, which is one of the fo ...
that she herself was never permitted to touch.


Personal life and teaching

In 1996 Coutts completed the London Arts Board/Institute of Education "Artists in Schools" Training Programme and received a City and Guilds Further and Adult Education Teacher's Certificate in 1997. From 1996 to 1999 she worked as a fine arts tutor and taught courses in portfolio preparation, after which she lived in Rome on a scholarship. In 1997 Coutts began a relationship with fellow artist Tom Lubbock who wrote for the arts section for the British newspaper ''The Independent''. The two married in 2001 and lived in separate flats in the north and south of London. When their son Eugene was born in 2007, they settled in Brixton. In 2001 Coutts began tutoring and guest teaching at
Goldsmiths University Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wo ...
, taking up a permanent position there in 2007. Concurrently, she was a visiting tutor for the Sculpture, City and Guilds of London Art School in 2002 and 2003, a visiting lecturer and then research fellow at the
Norwich School of Art and Design Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) is a public university in Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom that specialises in art, design and media. It was founded as Norwich School of Design in 1845 and has a long history of arts education. It gained ful ...
on and off from 2004 to 2009, and an associate lecturer at
University of the Arts, London University of the Arts London is a collegiate university in London, England, specialising in arts, design, fashion and the performing arts. It is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins, Chelsea Col ...
from 2005 to 2010. In 2008, her husband was diagnosed with a
brain tumor A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seconda ...
that turned out to be
glioblastoma multiforme Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is one of the most aggressive types of cancer that begin within the brain. Initially, signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nonspecific. They may include headaches, personality cha ...
. Told that he would have about two years to live, they moved into a hospice in 2010. He died of the cancer in 2011.


Writing

Before Lubbock's illness, Coutts regarded herself purely as a visual artist and not a writer. Feeling unable to create anything while her husband underwent treatment, she turned to writing. In 2009 after Lubbock's first brain surgery and rounds of
chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...
, Coutts began to jot things down in a series of
Word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...
docs. Initially these fragments, or "little lenses" as Coutts calls them, were a reflexive practice, which she eventually joined into a chains of texts and realized as a larger work. In 2012 Coutts contributed the introduction to her husband's posthumously released memoir, ''Until Further Notice, I Am Alive.'' That same year she edited Lubbock's essay collection, ''The English Graphic''. In 2014 Coutts published the book ''The Iceberg'', a "poetic and searing memoir" about her husband's death. The memoir begins at the point of Lubbock's 2008 diagnosis and follows him, Coutts, and their son Eugene (called "Ev" in the book) up through his treatment and eventual death in 2011. ''
The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' praised the book, saying, "'The plot of ''The Iceberg'' can be summed up in a sentence: A man gets sick and dies. Indeed, little else happens in artist turned author Marion Coutts' account of the final two years of her husband's life. Yet it is dazzling, devastating." ''The Iceberg'' was shortlisted for several literary prizes, and Coutts was awarded the
Wellcome Book Prize Wellcome Book Prize (2009–2019 — paused) is an annual British literary award sponsored by Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established i ...
in 2015.


Works


Discography

Albums with Dog Faced Hermans: * ''Humans Fly'' (Calculus, 1988) * ''Everyday Timebomb'' (Vinyl Drip, 1989) * ''Mental Blocks For All Ages'' ( Konkurrel Records/Project A Bomb, 1991) * ''Hum of Life'' (Konkurrel/Project A Bomb, 1993) * ''Bump and Swing'' (Konkurrel/
Alternative Tentacles Alternative Tentacles is an independent record label established in 1979 in San Francisco, California. It was used by Dead Kennedys for the self-produced single " California Über Alles". After realizing the potential for an independent label, ...
, 1994) * ''Those Deep Buds'' (Konkurrel/Alternative Tentacles, 1994)


Sculpture and installation

* ''Fresh Air'' (1998) * ''Souvenir'' (2000) * ''Decalogue'' (2001) * ''For The Fallen'' (2001) * ''Prophet'' (2001) * ''Sibyl'' (2001) * ''Cult'' (2002) * ''Everglade'' (video, 2003) * ''Money'' (2003) * ''Tenner'' (2003) * ''abcdefg'' (2007) * ''Reading Column'' (2008) * ''Twenty-Six Things'' (16mm film, 2008)


Film and video

* ''Epic'' (2000) * ''No Evil Star'' (2002) * ''Mountain'' (2005)


Books

* ''Marion Coutts'' (FVU, 2003) * ''Until Further Notice, I Am Alive'' (introduction,
Granta ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
, 2012) * ''The Iceberg'' (Atlantic, 2014)


Exhibitions

*
Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbar ...
(2000) * ''Troubleshooting'' at
Arnolfini Arnolfini is an international arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a ...
in Bristol (2001) * Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in Mexico City (2002) *
Firstsite Firstsite is a visual arts organisation based in Colchester, Essex, which opened in 2011. It was the national Art Fund's Museum of the Year in 2021. The building Firstsite occupy as tenants was designed by Rafael Viñoly and the freehold is r ...
in Colchester (2002) * Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art in Sunderland (2002) * ''Cult'' at Chisenhale Gallery in London (2002) * ''To Be Continued...'' at Helsinki Kunsthalle (2005) * ''Tablet'' in London (2005) * ''Responding to Rome'' at The Estorick Collection, The New Art Centre and Chisenhale Gallery.


Awards

* 2015
Wellcome Book Prize Wellcome Book Prize (2009–2019 — paused) is an annual British literary award sponsored by Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established i ...


References


External links


Artist's website

Marion Coutts on Discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coutts, Marion British artists British writers British filmmakers British women singers British rock trumpeters Living people 1965 births British women writers British women artists British women photographers Wellcome Book Prize British percussionists Women trumpeters