Its not every day that you end up in the Tate Britain on a Friday night, with a glass of chilled house white - not getting geared up for an exhibition opening, but for a gig? This evening HK 119 was to frog-march her audience into a terrifying world of the burlesque in a short, but intensely entertaining performance.
There were beer bottles everywhere, people where sitting down on the floor, and there was a group of children playing ring-o-roses in a far corner. I was comfortably set up next to a pretty oil-on-canvas ("Punch or May Day" 1829 by Benjamin Robert Hayclan, for those who are interested), soaking in the atmosphere, which as it turned out was crucial to the event.
The vibe was a weird hybrid of a beer-soaked art preview at some Hoxton gallery, and Glastonbury. There was no stage as such, just a space at the front of the room where HK 119's stagehands were spending an overtly long time placing three white cubes of ascending size, at very precise locations in the performing area - the penny dropped after a while that these were to serve as steps.
Normally I wouldn't devote so much time to describing the surroundings, but given that this was so out of the ordinary, I feel that it warranted a mention. The room itself was actually a cavernous hall, the acoustics of which caused echoes to ricochet up and down the walls and reverberate through the floor (a venue for drum and bass if ever there was one). The walls were painted a vibrant terracotta colour, and all the pictures were of epic battle scenes, and they were all very, very large. This was important because I guess HK 119's costume was designed to contrast with the surroundings.
Before I go on, I'd like to explain about HK 119. Don't be fooled, she's not a clinical trial, or indeed a variation of the influenza virus - her real name is Heidi Kilpelainen and she is a truly exceptional human being.
Apart from being an ex-Adam and the Ants backing singer and an ex-international fashion model, she also has a BA and MA in fine art from St Martins College of Art and Design, numerous solo exhibitions under her belt, and now she is releasing her debut EP, Come Pick Me UP, released on One Little Indian records, and is being hailed by artists such as Alison Goldfrapp and Björk . She is utterly self-sufficient in her work - she writes, composes, records, films, directs, does her own outlandish make-up, and makes her own costumes.
So back to the gig.
The lights dropped, and a woman wearing a top-hat and flamenco skirt came out front and instructed everyone to sit down at the front (including the aforementioned group of small children). There was an entourage of twisted circus characters who paved the way for the grand entrance, and finally, in marched HK 119...
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...dressed in a skin-tight black cat-suit, whitened face with black eyes and lips, overtly large shiny black cardboard horns, and trailing behind her, a cloak made out of about 13 large inflated black bin-liners tied onto black string.
She strutted into the arena, stepped up onto the white cubes, looked every single member of the audience in the eye and started to sing the most delicate lullaby. She was completely rigid and motionless whilst singing - it was quite eerie as she over-articulated every vowel, so onlookers were drawn to the movements of her mouth. It reminded me very much of that spooky scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang where Truly Scrumptious pretends to be a mechanical doll. I have to admit that it gave me the creeps a bit.
Then out of nowhere, HK 119 launched into a loud electro rock-opera. Her vocals were HUGE, amplified further by the amphitheatre we were in. Her feet were glued to the spot whilst her upper body, not to mention the blown up bin bags, were writhing around like they were caught up in the midst of a tornado. Her dance flipped between jerky robotic movements, to sexy whip-wheelin dominatrix, depending on the dynamics of the music.
At one point she crawled on all fours, Hell for leather like some crazed demon, at the group of kids at the front - the bouncing bin liners adding to the overall insanity. I was sat very near those poor children (who all found it really funny!), and Bloody Hell that woman is scary up close. She made a point of holding eye contact and believe me it was not a nice experience, because by the way she moves and looks, she makes it very easy to believe that she isn't human, but something else entirely.
Impressively, she maintained her note-perfect singing throughout. Even more impressive was the full on bona-fide brawl she got into with the bin bags. Rolling around on the floor in a complete and total frenzy, where her horns got ripped off (was it her, or the bags? no-one will ever know...), and even then her singing/screaming was still spot on.
At the climax - and there was no other word for it - the music came to an abrupt end. HK 119 stopped, stood up, and stormed out of the arena without so much as a backward glance at the stunned audience.
Completely bonkers.
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