This web site features clips from works by Anat Ben-David, a video and performance Artist, working and living in London since 1999

She is a pioneer of the video-performance genre in Israel, and her skills span from acting,singing and directing for the stage to video art, video editing and digital imaging.

collaboration with Chicks On Speed (since 2003)

for more info on Chicks On Speed Art Projects and to view Art works contact: Art@chicksonspeed.com

for Anat Ben-David booking and shows contact: ben_david_anat@hotmail.com

Anat Ben -David - Performance

In my performance I want to create and generate a total vision. using my body voice and appearance.

I write songs/texts and perform as a band, as a performance artist .
I became involved in music as a performer/writer I direct my activities into a live event which could result in an art performance or a live gig that derives from punk performance and pop music.

I produce images and video art that then come together as an installation.
The essence of my performance is the live interaction with the viewers or with the camera. who ever is in front of me…It is about producing a performative moment and a persona that exists in total when the event takes place and after- in our memories/recordings as an iconic image.

I use my self as material to generate that persona.
The live performance resonates into everything I create or involved in, whether its my activities as a collaborator, or as a solo artist.

The question I ask myself as an artists is, what is totally original and personal and could never become anything then what it is, I find that the most relevant and direct answer lies in a live performance.

When I first began to combine live performance and visual art, I was concerned with the limitations presented as a default of working within these two different media. Initially, I used video and then digital image manipulation to try and merge the two together. I used my image in a virtual digital space splitting my body, duplicating and working with the parts and voice as materials for my work.
Later on I started working with music creating my own lyrics and music and performing as a singer.

I have also used software and digital video in my work to create stand-alone videos, photos and animations for exhibitions, as well as for visuals to work together with my live performances.

Popaganda

Towards the end of my MA Fine art studies at Goldsmiths College, 2002, I focused on the relation between the fascist leader and the pop star as dominant performers in front of a desiring audience of supporters/fans. Both creating, through their performance, a focal force that draws people in, in a totalitarian, collective mode. Media, pop culture and fashion in the case of the pop star, and images of power and control behind the fascist leader help to create this mythical figure that is channelling visions of hope and releases the individual from their every day life into a fantastic utopian experience.

I was drawn specifically to the WWII period because at the time of my studies I was commissioned to create work for the 'Wonderyears' exhibition in Berlin, focused on third generation Israeli artists' view on Nazism and the Holocaust.

Being a performance artist, I decided to take on the pop star role by becoming one, by joining friends who play in contemporary electro punk rock acts- Chicks On Speed and Peaches - on a tour of the US (the 'Electroclash' tour, summer 2002).

I recorded a repertoire of songs that I could perform as a singer. I took old songs from the WWII period (by Marlene Dietrich, Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weil), created new melodies and sang them over existing backing instrumental tracks by synth-pop, music concrete and electrronica artists such as Visage, Pierre Henry, and Mu-sic (Mike Paradinas). My brother, the artist Yoav Ben-David, wrote some tracks for me as well.

I got more and more involved in music after my graduation and started performing with 'Popaganda Live', all over Europe supporting Chicks On Speed whom I've been working with, as a visuals person at the time. I performed in a number of festivals, galleries and venues. I also created the 'Hugo Boss provocation' which was a political prank and intervention, where I infiltrated the firm's annual event as a formally booked performer after the firm refused to assist on my 'Wonderyears' project relating to their business collaborations with the Nazis. I addressed this during my performance at the party and caused some furor within the company (details in separate document).

I am now a member of Chicks On Speed and releasing a new album of original songs for which I wrote both the music and lyrics. the basis for the new album is two performance pieces,

"Everyone Dances To His Own Personal Boom Boom" 2004 for DaDaDa Strategies Against Marketure exhibition, curetted by Pil and galia kollective at Temporarycontemporary gallery, London, 2004.

And" Atletica Live", live performance at Late at Tate, Tate Britain UK,2004.

Similarly to Popaganda, performed those works live with video visuals and costumes I created specifically for that purpose as well as paintings.This work extended to a series of animations collaborating with the photographer-Jet
And where exhibited at:

"Diamonds for Workers" group show Kate Macgarry gallery, London.

I later created a site specific performance at Dungeness with Gaffer tape costumes with jet for Port Eliot-Lit Fest, ST Germans, Cornwall.

This work led to a series of gaffer paintings and a video work and was exhibited as an installation at "Imagine a World, an Amnesty International art exhibition at South Bank, currated by Emma Underhill.

Parallel to those shows I continued to perform with my music and with Chicks On Speed in many countries including a tour in Australia, USA and the far east.

I consider myself not a musician per se, but an artist that uses music and live performance (art) as a main arena of action, mediation and communication. I find performance to be the most relevant, engaging and immediate form of art, as nothing can replace the moment that takes place when a live performer is in action. A moment that can not be bought, packaged or traded, only shared

For more information go to: work and cv or contact ben_david_anat@hotmail.com