Marcus Coates

Vision Quest depicts Marcus Coates’ three-year collaboration with a neighbourhood in Elephant & Castle (South London) that is suffering from a violent gentrification scheme. In this period the artist engaged in a shamanic quest to locate animal spirits able of guiding the community. Practising lengthily rites, the artist together with residents, local politicians and a psychedelic doom rock orchestra, appeal to guardian animals to appear in visions or dreams and to guide them in their troubled housing issues.

The Directors is a collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from different lived experiences of psychosis. Positioned behind the camera, each of them directs Coates in a filmed re-staging of a particular episode from their life.

The Directors is a collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from different lived experiences of psychosis. Positioned behind the camera, each of them directs Coates in a filmed re-staging of a particular episode from their life.

The Directors is a collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from different lived experiences of psychosis. Positioned behind the camera, each of them directs Coates in a filmed re-staging of a particular episode from their life.

In 'Journey to the Lower World', Marcus Coates performs a Shaman ritual to an audience of residents living in a condemned tower block in Liverpool. This often humorous but evocative ritual involves the artist talking to and obtaining information from animal spirit guides to suggest a possible community strategy for the soon to be relocated tenants.

The Directors is a collaboration between artist Marcus Coates and five individuals in recovery from different lived experiences of psychosis. Positioned behind the camera, each of them directs Coates in a filmed re-staging of a particular episode from their life.