Whitby Weekender
John Cussans, Ellen Cantor

A part-screening, part-talk by artist and writer John Cussans on the work of Ellen Cantor, and their collaboration, Whitby Weekender.
John met Ellen Cantor in 2002 after a friend suggested that he should see her first film, Within Heaven and Hell. Following a meeting with Ellen they became close friends, collaborating on performances together and making Whitby Weekender, a video documentary about Northern Soul – the British dance and music subculture – filmed during John’s 40th birthday celebrations in 2005. The film was completed in 2006.
Ellen Cantor (b. Detroit, USA 1961–2013) was a prolific artist working between New York and London. Cantor’s solo exhibitions included Within a Budding Grove, Participant Inc., New York (2008); Bambi’s Beastly Buddies, Sketch, London (2005); Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2000); My Perversion is the Belief in True Love, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (1999); Video 1995–1998, Kunstverein Salzburg, Austria (1999); and Remember the 14 Days and Nights, Vorarlberger Kunstverein, Bregenz, Austria (1997). John Cussans is an artist, writer and researcher whose practice crosses video, performance, image-making and alternative pedagogy. He is currently MFA Course Director at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford (UK).