Summerhall, Edinburgh until July 16 th On opposing walls, two films play out in silence, each offering different interpretations of the truth, as if on either side of an invisible barricade before battle – intellectual or otherwise – commences. On one screen, in Mr Butterwick Remembers Mrs Thatcher , a former Fife miner and veteran of the Thatcher years recounts his personal observations of some of the epochal moments of 1980s Britain. Over eighteen minutes this moves from the Irish Troubles to the Poll Tax, taking in the Falklands War and of course the Miners’ Strike inbetween. Behind the black and white footage of Gordon Butterwick, in living colour, an edition of Jeremy Kyle's daytime TV freak-show plays out. Opposite, Glossary of Political Words gives definition to a set of twenty-first century keywords of political discourse that cut through the managerialist spin with deadpan cynicism as each word is flashed up in turn. Butterwick's words are revealed only in subtit
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.