Kim Coleman
& Jenny Hogarth
An Infusion of the Evening Air
Nought to Sixty
An excerpt from the exhibition catalogue essay
by Neil Mulholland
‘…In the mid sixties the Scottish artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills organised a number of important events and performances in London, including several at the ICA. These performances exemplified the emergent psychedelic liberalism of the period, most notably the infamous Son et Lumiere for Bodily Fluids and Functions (1967), wherein a couple who had not met before made love on stage whilst wired up to ECG and EEG monitors, their heart beats and brain patterns projected onto the screen above them. In 1965 the Boyles arranged Oh What a Lovely Whore , an event not carried out by the artists themselves, but orchestrated by guests invited to the ICA, who were presented with a series of props and invited to make their own happening happen. A DIY affair, it signified a paradigm shift that characterised the art of the sixties: the transferral of responsibility from the artist to the viewer.
The Boyle's happenings are scores that can be replayed and reinterpreted. The audience and its participation is paramount; it makes up each event anew. The happenings are, potentially at least, as much a part of the ICA's present as they are of its past, and this raises questions worth considering in relation to the re-staging being conducted by Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth. What happens when a happening happens amidst an audience armed with the hindsight and cynicism of today? Knowledge or experience of the origins of performance might now prevent openness to invitation, and the invitation to play certainly has different connotations. In the current climate—one dominated by the ideology of the artist as facilitator or cultural services provider—the scripting and directing process is more managerial than it once promised. Given this, did today's audience respond with the same degree of enthusiasm and autonomy as their mid sixties equivalent? If it was possible that the free-play and anarchistic spirit of the inaugural happening might be inhibited in these more self-conscious times, then was just as likely that it might prove to be a powder keg for a frustrated fraternity.
In the event, as soon as licence was given, there was no shortage of fervent interactivity. An art school band formed within seconds, making use of the new instruments provided. The piano was played then ceremonially smashed (much as it was the first time around). Drawings were drawn, sculptures sculpted, performances performed. Meanwhile the ICA security did their best to keep the audience healthy and safe by improvising their own arbitrary rules of play. A swing of nudists were curtailed from frolicking around in the ball pool ('Pants Must Be Kept On At All Times'). Free alcoholic drinks, once taken in and out of the venue, could not be taken back in again, thus spearheading a booze-induced exodus to the ICA bar. Such impromptu acts of prohibition, coupled with a small fire, helped put out the proceedings. What's certain, is that this was as effective an acid test of the current cultural climate as it was in the mid sixties.'
ICA 2009, December 2008
