Latency

Poser is a fictional music group conceived by artist Reece Cox. Poser adopts the familiar format of a band as a cultural readymade and vehicle for artistic production including performance, sound, and image. Through an ongoing process of collaboration with several artists, actors, performers, photographers, and musicians, Poser continues to grow as a multifaceted and interdisciplinary project. Poser has no fixed members. 

The release comprises three versions of Simple Gifts, a traditional Shaker hymn written by Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848 about Shaker values and spiritual practice: that to live simply is a divine attribute. Initially, the song was chosen by Cox as an homage to artist Dan Graham, who speaks of the Shakers community extensively in his 1983 film Rock My Religion, from which Cox drew much initial inspiration for the project. In Poser’s versions, Simple Gifts is realised as two distinct modern, melancholic pieces of music fusing countertenor Steve Katona’s classical vocal technique with modern instruments and styles. FRANKIE contributes a beautiful version using her voice and layered cello. 

The cover art comes from artist group ART CLUB2000 who were active in New York City throughout the 1990’s. The group was known for miming popular culture by staging familiar scenarios seen in advertisements, film, or television. In this image, Untitled (Industria Superstudios 2/​Makeup Room, 1992–1993), members of ART CLUB2000 lounge in a backstage makeup room as if casually preparing for a photoshoot. Poser, much like art club, is interested in the ways in which popular images are produced and the mechanics driving collective, cultural imagination. 

Simple Gifts was first performed by Poser during their debut at Galerie Gisela Capitain in Cologne in 2022. Poser has since performed at Sara’s in New York, NY and at KW Institute for Contemporary art, Berlin.