'Norwegian Wood (This bird has flown)'

Norwegian Wood hits the big screen at JLA

For the third successive year, Liverpool John Lennon Airport is delighted to be part of the Liverpool Biennial International ‘08 exhibition 'Made Up'.

This year, JLA is proud to be showing ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' on the multi-media wall in the Airport's departure lounge. The video which was created and directed by Nick Jordan, performed by Cornershop, and written by Lennon/McCartney is a rare treat for all departing passengers.

Local artist, Nick Jordon, said: "Throughout my work I'm interested in forming connections between things that wouldn't normally be associated together. For this video I wanted to develop the notion of 'fusion', combining different elements in image and sound to make something distinct. Cornershop's cover version of ‘Norwegian Wood' is an interesting multi-cultural fusion in itself. Sung in Punjabi, Cornershop sardonically re-frame The Beatles' original, which in 1965 marked the first use of a sitar in pop music, and signalled the band's growing interest in Asian music and religion. Set to ‘Norwegian Wood' I've filmed a folk dancer performing the ‘halling', a traditional Norwegian folk dance. Situated in woodland, the video was recorded at a traditional grass-roofed timber barn in Norway. The ‘halling' is a solo male dance, intended to demonstrate strength and virility to a female partner. It is largely improvised, with some time-honoured acrobatic moves including the ‘kastet', in which the gallant dancer jumps and kicks a hat from the end of a wooden pole, held aloft by a maiden."

The video was originally commissioned by the ICA, London, for the UK touring exhibition Beck's Fusions, in 2007. It is currently being played on the media wall at JLA every half an hour until the end of the Biennial celebrations, 30th November 2008.

For more information regarding Liverpool Biennial International ‘08 exhibition logo on to www.biennial.com

Biography

Nick Jordan is an artist whose practice encompasses video, drawing, painting, events and publishing. With subjects that include flytraps, ancient woodlands, extinct species and cinema, Jordan's work explores our complex relationship with the unruly natural world and our own multifaceted cultural histories.

Nick Jordan's recent shows include MoNO - The Museum of Native Oaks, The Manchester Museum; Darwin's Eye, Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA), Paris; Rub-a-dub-dub, St.Gallen, Switzerland; 3rd Beijing Independent Film Festival, Songzhuang, China; The Golden Record, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh; Videonale 11, Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany; 5th London Short Film Festival, ICA, London; North and South, Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland; Scanners: The New York Video Festival; Godwottery, Transition Gallery, London.

To find out more log onto www.nickjordan.info