Even by the Institute of Contemporary Arts’s standards, last night’s opening of this week’s Fig-2 offering—the 31st of 50 projects over 50 weeks—was a riotous affair. Sweaty packed crowds, swigging gin cocktails, squeezed themselves around an expanse of “green screen” upon which a bizarrely costumed female bouffon (jester) cavorted for over an hour to the sound of frantic drumbeats. Her antics were simultaneously superimposed onto a screen showing video footage of London’s hallowed institutional power bases—Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards Parade, The Mall and Downing Street—which are all in the surrounding streets. This padded personage—a.k.a. Hannah Ringham, the co-founder of the UK performance collective Shunt—provided a rude and often hilarious counterpoint to our capital’s oh-so-serious military parades and rituals, for which we are so well known.
The spectacle was orchestrated by the artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, who are working with Ringham on their forthcoming Lisson Gallery show (25 September-31 October 2015). In addition to the Fig-2 piece—and an intriguing set of works based on colliding bullets from the American Civil War—the exhibition will also feature a new film in which Ringham causes more mayhem in a military camp outside Liverpool, teaching young cadets how to pratfall, play dead and stage fictitious fights. Arguably good training for both the army and the art world… There is another chance to see Ringham in bouffon-mode this Thursday (6 August) evening at the ICA.