S/TARLITE I/N T/HE C/REDIT SYS/TEM is a prevaricating installation of two video works using the television mini-series format to disturb factual and fictional visual representations of contemporary professionalism. A professional code of conduct dependent on a range of social, cultural, economic and creative factors. Alternative time and space here invert stereotypes, which satirize and offer distancing vantage points from our contemporary being; shifts between documentary and fantasy confuse distinctions in how we perform ourselves. A casting call, an audition, feminist monarchies, role-playing, dance parties, staff retreats, and monetizing the coming apocalypse.

EPISODES OF STARLITE and CRISIS IN THE CREDIT SYSTEM appear as reflections of each other, confusing and unifying their messages while making visible the absurdity of hyper-professionalization according to industry terms. Through formally different ways, the works challenge preconceptions of conduct instead of reinforcing them. Set in worlds where characters act out several contradictions and paradoxes of cultural, social and financial production, nothing is ever really resolved except for an acknowledgement of competing complexities.

Crisis in the Credit System is a four part fictional foray into contemporary global market catastrophe, scripted and directed by artist Melanie Gilligan. While pursuing a brainstorming and role-playing session, five individuals inadvertently role-play their way into bizarre make-believe scenarios forming disturbing conclusions about the deeper significance of the credit crisis and its effects beyond the world of finance. Crisis in the Credit System is the result of extensive research and conversations with major hedge fund managers, key financial journalists, economists, bankers and debt activists. Melanie Gilligan was born in Toronto in 1979. She currently lives in London and New York and works in a variety of media including video, performance, text, installation and music. Gilligan was a Fellow with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in 2004-5. In 2009 Gilligan was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists. She has had solo exhibitions at institutions including Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne and Chisenhale Gallery, London and VOX, Montreal.

Episodes of Starlite is a series of five films by Frances Scholz inverting archetypes of the fantasy genre from the points of view of gender and art. Projecting the existence of a mythical final film of Mark von Schlegell’s 2011 fantasy serial text Starlite, the Episodes announce a story of a female monarchy beset by male enemies on a continent that is believed to be the body of a goddess. The Episodes stage the edges of the myth’s creation – the casting, musical performance, acting, editing and light effects of an unseen Frances Scholz film. Originally commissioned to coincide with a series of exhibitions by Cosima von Bonin, Episodes of Starlite was filmed between New York and Iceland and stars Mark von Schlegell, Anna Friebe, Kasper König, Leslie Allison, Lily Benson, Paul Giamatti, Susan Howe and many more. Frances Scholz was born in Washington D.C and is currently based in Cologne. She is professor of painting at the Braunschweig University of Art since 2002. Her work is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin, London.

These five Episodes of Starlite will be screened in tandem with the four episodes of Crisis in the Credit System, both making their New York debut. Remixed by Alaina Claire Feldman @ Jack Chiles 208 Bowery New York, NY 10012 Opening Screening: December 2, 3 – 6pm On view Mondays, Thursdays, Sundays 12 – 5pm or by appointment

jackchiles.com stopthebus.org/starlite crisisinthecreditsystem.org.uk