In The Prelude, Walter and Phillip channel their shared enthusiasm for forgotten rituals, physical and visual decadence and cathartic actions, using 1973 film The Exorcist as source material. As they deconstruct the film, the artists (including dancers Caroline Meaden, Michelle Heaven, Rachael Wisby and William McBride) create physicalised improvisations in response to its characters, generating a choreography of embodied exorcisms and symbolism. Through these processes, the film and its characters will be subverted into highly stylised anachronistic landscapes that relocate it from its original source including a giant field of prototaxites and the film’s 70s garb and priests’ attire, all in cosmic green couture. The artists’ fetishizations of the film’s narratives combine in their directorial roles, which are live in the work – part film director, fashion designer and sound mixer.

        This durational, experiential production culminates in a hijacking of the film’s experimentations with exorcism, climaxing with the levitation of constructed beds.