About:
We know that Gaseous Feet, at the age of 15, like the dutch actor Rutger Hauer, left home to become a sailor. The brisk winds carried him to Hong Kong where he was discharged for "inappropriate use of sleeping quarters". We know that he was briefly enrolled with the estemed Hong Kong Film Art Institute.
We know that in the summer of 1983 he gained some local mention living for 40 days in a rain-barrel in Bassin d'Argenteuil, north of Paris, documenting the flow of The Seine that resulted in the 40 hour installation "Jeanne d'Arc's Perverted Ashes". Upon completion the film was, according to witnesses, "unraveled and placed in a simple plastic grocery bag along with a big rock, tied shut and returned to the river."
We know that Gaseous Feet, in 2001, co-founded the eclectic Gaelic music group "Fishsticks and Violins" together with American multi-instrumentalist Billy-Bob Truffaut. The collaboration was short lived as Gaseous showed up for a gig at The Fountain In, in Barming, wearing nothing but "lady's stockings, not a string on his lyre".
His current location and activity is unknown. Some say he's a New Delhi independent film producer, some say he's the Croyden plumber/cinematographer, Billy 'Make Mine A double' Wilkins. According to some posts on various message boards, where Gaseous has gained some cult status, there's indication that he will make an appearance at the up-coming Royal Wedding.
I think I know this guy, met him just after the Bassin d'Argenteuil episode, we worked together for Ceramique Belgique fitting bathrooms, went on contract in '81 out to the Congo for a spell, he was always messing with his little Kodak even then, his name actually is 'Gassy-Arse' Steve Barraclough, went doolally tap on the Zambian border, swore he was in harmony with the gestalt of Conrad's novel, was gonna make a short interpretaion 'Arse of Darkness', I think he said it would be called. Last I heard he was living inside a dead horse up near Lake Tanganyika. Tell the ol' bastard I said "hello", glad to hear he's doing so well, and tell him I'll never forget what he did inside my pyjamas, the bastard hahaha
ReplyDeleteI've just had an email asking me to look at this website, enquiring if I think it's an aquaintance of mine who's up to his tricks again! Well, it looks like it. Very nice videos indeed! I met him briefly in Berlin and we'd sit on my bed and he'd tell me about his then embrionic scheme to merge poetry and film in such an enlightening pastiche of wonderment and bafflingness while outside the hotel, people walked past with bits and pieces from the wall which was being pulled down at that time; he'd tell me about his formative years growing up on the family's radish farm under the Urals, and his early never-wavering belief that one day he'd be influential. I last saw him in 1991: we'd shared a Chinese 'Feast for 2' takeaway and a tenderness till he abruptly left at 5am proclaiming the coming of a new era of cinematography. I never saw him again. I once got a postcard from Croydon, UK, mentioning how he'd got in with a cell of multi-media neo-Truffautists. That's all I know. He's a good lad deep down. I hope he's still taking his meds and wish him well. Roy
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