K Foundation

K Foundation
An early K Foundation advert: "Time is running in"
Background information
Origin	United Kingdom
Years active	1993–1995
Past members	Jimmy Cauty Bill Drummond

The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (The KLF) in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF income. Between 1993 and 1995, they spent this money in a number of ways, including on a series of Situationist-inspired press adverts and extravagant subversions in the art world, focusing in particular on the Turner Prize. Most notoriously, when their plans to use banknotes as part of a work of art fell through, they burned a million pounds in cash.

The K Foundation announced a 23-year on all projects from November 1995. They further indicated that they would not speak about the burning of the million pounds during the period of this moratorium.

In the early 1980s, British musician and artist Jimmy Cauty was the guitarist in an underachieving pop/rock band, Brilliant. Brilliant had been signed to WEA Records by A&R man Bill Drummond, formerly a member of the Liverpool group Big in Japan, the manager of The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & the Bunnymen, and co-founder of the independent record label Zoo Records. In 1986, Brilliant released their one and only album - Kiss The Lips Of Life - before splitting up. In the same year, Drummond left WEA Records to record a solo album. Whilst out walking on New Year's Day, 1987, Drummond hit upon an idea for a hip-hop record but, he said, knowing "nothing, personally, about the technology", he needed a collaborator. Drummond called Jimmy Cauty who agreed to join him in a new band called The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu (The JAMs).