Dirty Protest + Squirtapalooza
2014
Cornerhouse, Manchester
Artist | Dirty Protest (2014)
Artist | with Charlotte O’Toole and Ben Grainger, Squirtapalooza (2014)
Main image: Elle Brotherhood
Gallery images: Chris Payne
Working within the gallery system has provided a unique opportunity to respond to and navigate the disparities that bounce between the poles of headline artist and engagement activity, having some fun along the way.
An artist of note had delivered an exhibition opening performance in the gallery space, choosing to present the minimal ghost-residue for the public to encounter (then leaving the country, the brief having been delivered). My conversations with audiences in the weeks following ranged from frustration, to confusion, to anger that so little thought had been given by the principal artist to their subsequent visiting experience.
Upon scheduled closure of the exhibition, I proposed an independent activity in the turnaround period before the next show, in response to the UK cinema release of an artist feature documentary by Bob and Roberta Smith, Art Party (2014). The premiere encouraged nationwide parties that drew attention to the funding cuts for teaching of artistic subjects in the UK (still applicable today). The subsequent live event resulted in a packed gallery, filled with people engaging and delighting in the diametric opposite of the rather cold, academic absence of the earlier performance-artwork that had left the building before they had even arrived.
Dirty Protest co-opted the built structure of a temporary white-cube performance space that itself reflected the sterile, look-don’t-touch quality of formal gallery aesthetics, the floor covered in dust sheets. Racks of disposable overalls, goggles and masks were provided for those venturing within, where 50 gallons of rainbow hued paints, pens, brushes, charcoal, crayons and bumper jars of chocolate spread sat waiting, with a single instruction-intention: “Stage your own dirty protest”. No further encouragement was needed. A viewing window installed along one side framed the deliriously cathartic splatterthon that ensued for hundreds more to witness.
Across the same gallery space in collaboration with cake makers Charlotte O’Toole and Ben Grainger, Squirtapalooza tapped into a fairground vibe, consisting of a Trifle Range (for throwing cakes at the likeness of the then UK Education Secretary, Michael Gove), and cake-face makeovers, substituting icing and edible toppings for foundation, eye-shadow and mascara.
The centrepiece was Frankenpudding, an oversized cut-and-shunt combination of homemade and store-bought sponges, flans and pies that the public were invited to mash together into a monstrous hybrid, adding their own cack-handed decorations from piping bags provided. At a nominated moment, spoons were provided, and scoffing began.
Flying beneath the radar of headline programming, the event amplified the joy of the hands-on alongside the spoofing of formal systems - be it government policy, appropriate gallery behaviours or parachute-dropped artists with more interest in academic review than public engagement.
