K Foundation

The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in 1993 following their 'retirement' from the music industry. Essentially the K Foundation consisted purely of the money that duo made as The KLF. From 1993 to 1995 they spent the money in a number of ways including a series of Situationist-inspired press adverts and an extravagant subversion of the art world, in particular the Turner Prize. Most notoriously, when their plans to use the money as part of a work of art fell through, they burnt a million pounds in cash.

The K Foundation was wound up on November 5th, 1995 when Drummond and Cauty selected the incredibly obscure "Workshop For A Non-Linear Architecture" bulletin to announce a moratorium on K Foundation projects. Part of their announcement also indicated that they would not speak about the burning of the million pounds during the period of this moratorium.

K Foundation adverts

The first manifestation of the K Foundation was a series of adverts in UK national newspapers (both in the magazine supplements of the quality broad sheets and in the tabloid press), with each advert costing between £5,000 and £15,000.Sandall, Robert, "Adding to the confusion; K Foundation's new ads", The Times (London) ISSN 01400460, 12 September 1993, Features section. The first adverts were cryptic referring to "K Time" and advising readers to "Kick out the clocks". There was also an advert for their single "K Cera Cera" which was "Available nowhere ... no formats" and which was not planned for release until world peace was established.

K Cera Cera

"K Cera Cera" was released as a limited edition single in Israel and Palestine in November 1993. An amalgam of Que Será Será and John Lennon/Yoko Ono's Happy Xmas (War Is Over), it was credited to the "K Foundation presents The Red Army Choir". The release was made "In acknowledgement of the recent brave steps taken by the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)". Plans to broadcast the track from the main stage of the 1993 Glastonbury Festival at the beginning and end of every day were scuppered by festival organiser Michael Eavis because, in his words, the record was "simply dreadful"."No band, no record... no good", New Musical Express, 10 July 1993 (link). The record was instead broadcast at that year's Phoenix Festival.New Musical Express, 24 July 1993.

Turner Prize subversion

Main article: K Foundation art award

Later adverts asked the public to "Abandon all art now" and then invited members of the public to vote for the "worst artist of the year". The 1993 Turner Prize was being judged at the same time, and both awards had the same shortlist of four artists. The prize being offered by Drummond and Cauty was £40,000 which was double the £20,000 offered for the Turner Prize.

Channel 4 Television broadcast coverage of the Turner Prize, during which three K Foundation adverts were broadcast — these announced the "amending of art history". The eventual winner of the Turner Prize was Rachel Whiteread, who also won the K Foundation Prize for worst artist of the year. Whiteread initially refused to accept the K Foundation award, but after being told that the money would be incinerated, she reluctantly accepted and later donated £30,000 of the money to artists in financial need and the other £10,000 to the housing charity, Shelter.

The K Foundation burn a million pounds

On the August 23 1994, in a boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura, Drummond and Cauty incinerated £1,000,000, an act that required the biggest cash withdrawal in British history. The burning was witnessed by an old friend and freelance journalist Jim Reid, who subsequently wrote an article about the act for the Observer. It was filmed on Super 8 by their friend Gimpo.

Reid admitted to first feeling shock and guilt and about the burning, which quickly turned to boredom. The money took well over an hour to burn as Drummond and Cauty fed £50 notes into the fire. Drummond later said that only about £900,000 of the money was actually burnt – the rest flew straight up the chimney.Simpson, D., "It's not haute cuisine", The Guardian, 20 May 2004. The press reported that an islander handed £1,500 into the police and that the money was not claimed and returned to the finder.Bowditch, G., "Duo with £1m to burn leave island guessing", The Times, 4 October 1994 (link).McKerron, I., "Duo Burn £1M In Midnight Madness", Daily Express, 1 October 1994 (link).

The K Foundation destroyed their copy of the film – they felt that the public had to have faith that the burning had taken place. It was 10 months later that Gimpo revealed to them that he had secretly kept a copy.

The initial reaction was one of disbelief, with most people considering the "burning" to have been a scam. However, over time (and not least since the showing of Gimpo's film) the burning has come to be accepted as genuine. A February 2000 article in The Observer newspaper, for example, stated "It wasn't a stunt. They really did it. If you want to rile Bill Drummond, you call him a hoaxer. 'I knew it was real,' a long-time friend and associate of his group The KLF tells me, 'because afterwards, Jimmy and Bill looked so harrowed and haunted. And to be honest, they've never really been the same since'"."Burning Question", The Observer, 13 Feb 2000 (link).

Why did the K Foundation burn a million pounds?

Exactly one year to the date of the act (August 23, 1995), Drummond and Cauty returned to Jura for the premier screening of the film, now known as Watch The K-Foundation Burn A Million Quid.

The film was then toured around the UK over the next few months (plus one showing in Belgrade), with a Q&A session at the end of each screening where members of the audience asked Drummond and Cauty why they burnt the money and also offered their own interpretations.

However, Drummond and Cauty quickly became bored of the questions - they felt that nothing new or interesting was coming forward. So, on November 5, 1995 Drummond and Cauty signed a contract agreeing to wind up the K Foundation and never to speak about the money burning for a period of 23 years, ending November 5, 2018. The contract was signed on the bonnet of a rented car which they claim to have then pushed over the edge of the cliff at Cape Wrath. The contract was announced in the final K Foundation press advert.K Foundation, Cape Wrath advertisement, The Guardian (G2), 8 December 1995 (link).

On September 17, 1997, a new film, This Brick, was premiered. The film consisted of one 3-minute shot of a brick made from the ashes of the money burnt at Jura. It was shown at the Barbican Centre prior to Drummond and Cauty's performance as 2K.

On September 27, 1997 a book written by Chris Brook and Gimpo entitled K Foundation Burn A Million Quid (ISBN 0954165659, ISBN 1899858377 paperback) was published by Ellipsis. The book contains stills from the film and transcriptions of various Q&A sessions from the tour.

In 2004 Drummond admitted to the BBC that he now regretted burning the money.McKevitt, G. "What Drummond did next", BBC Online, 30 April 2004 (link) "It's a hard one to explain to your kids and it doesn't get any easier. I wish I could explain why I did it so people would understand.""KLF Bill: I regret burning £1m", Sunday Mail (Glasgow), 25 July 2004, p27.

K2 Plant Hire

In 1997, Drummond and Cauty briefly reemerged as 2K (music and performance art) and then K2 Plant Hire Ltd. (conceptual art), with various plans to "Fuck the Millennium". K2 Plant Hire's published aim was to "build a massive pyramid containing one brick for every person born in the UK during the 20th century"Fortean Times, referencing The Big Issue, 15-21 Sept and The Guardian, 5 Nov 1997. (link). They promised that "The construction of the People's Pyramid will cost the taxpayer nothing. The site is yet to be announced. It will be open to the public free of charge, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You will be able to do what you want with it. Climb it, paint it, polish it, eat your sandwiches on it or chip it away. It will stand for as long there is any of it left. It will promote nothing. Be sponsored by nobody. And owned by everybody.""People's Pyramid", Melody Maker, 15 Nov 1997 (link) Members of the public were urged to donate bricks, with 1.5 bricks per Briton being needed to complete the project."2K: Brickin' it!", New Musical Express, Nov 97 (link) Bill Drummond also contributed a short story titled "Let’s Grind, or How K2 Plant Hire Ltd Went to Work" to the book "Disco 2000".Champion, S. (editor), Disco 2000, Sceptre, ISBN 0340707712, 1998.

Notes & references