Trinity Apse until August 27th
Four stars
This was By leaves we live...not by the jingling of our coins, the latest processional intervention by Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich, who have previously made weapons of happiness out of the pink blow-up artillery of Love Cannon (2005), which brightened the skies by firing pink balloons. This new intervention is inspired by an illustration found on a Northumberland Miners' Association banner from 1924 as well as nineteenth century anarchist pamphlets. It acted as a trailer of sorts for The Dragon of Profit and Private Ownership, in which the dragon lays dormant until the end of Edinburgh Art Festival in the Old Town's suitably historic Trinity Apse building, having hot air blown up its arse all day long. A bunting strewn booth shows footage of By leaves we live... on a series of monitors.
Four stars
Back at the end of July, passers by on
the Royal Mile in Edinburgh were confronted with a giant inflatable
green dragon and a display of mediaeval pageantry in which a
procession of agitators attempted to slay the beast. The dragon was s
emblazoned with the words, 'PUBLIC AND PRIVATE OWNERSHIP' on its
front, and 'CORPORATE GREED' on its back. Some of those attempting to
usurp it were tattooed with the word 'NATIONALISATION.' It looked
like a satirical cartoon made flesh and acted out in a display that
resembled something between a mummer's play and an episode of
Horrible Histories.
This was By leaves we live...not by the jingling of our coins, the latest processional intervention by Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich, who have previously made weapons of happiness out of the pink blow-up artillery of Love Cannon (2005), which brightened the skies by firing pink balloons. This new intervention is inspired by an illustration found on a Northumberland Miners' Association banner from 1924 as well as nineteenth century anarchist pamphlets. It acted as a trailer of sorts for The Dragon of Profit and Private Ownership, in which the dragon lays dormant until the end of Edinburgh Art Festival in the Old Town's suitably historic Trinity Apse building, having hot air blown up its arse all day long. A bunting strewn booth shows footage of By leaves we live... on a series of monitors.
The
event itself subverted civic spectacle on a par with some of Jeremy
Deller's parades, and also taps into a very real democratic need for
collective participation in artistic acts rather than be mere passive
observers. This recalls some of the outdoor spectacles of
Welfare State International, as well as the early capers of Ken
Campbell, Jeff Nuttall's adventures with The People Show and Albert
Hunt's experiments with the Bradford Theatre Group. Like such
forebears, Walker and Bromwich's intervention is a comic
revolutionary provocation in which we can all join in, slaying
dragons as we go.
The List, August 2017
ends
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