Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster

Purcell Room, Southbank Centre

Reviewed – 16th October 2019

★★★★

“this is a piece that’s highly accessible, proving that performance art is something to be enjoyed by all”

The difference between right and wrong. That’s something we are taught from an early age isn’t it? Always trying to do our best, developing into a better person. But what happens if those lines between good and bad, peace and conflict become skewed? Highly regarded performance artist Nicola Gunn explores these very notions in her latest work with an observant eye and playful demeanour.

There’s a woman. In Ghent, Belgium. She’s been running along a canal. She stops as something catches her eye. A man is throwing stones. At a duck. In the canal. What takes over is a barrage of contemplation about human behaviour, principles and the question of intervention. All whilst dancing around the stage. Naturally.

The work is very much a product and a response to our times. Gunn captures the dilemmas, debates, and dichotomies that rapidly fly around our heads between what’s considered good or right, keeping our consciences clear, maintaining a moral high ground, what’s deemed politically correct, and our trust in strangers. Her high voltage energy and constant distraction, with conversations trailing completely off topic, represents our confusions and incessant state of worry, fear, and anger. The world right now is in unknown territory, and Nicola reflects this through the lens of an artist’s perspective.

Gunn is non stop. Coinciding with the text, the piece is a series of jerky choreographed movements (wonderfully created by Jo Lloyd) that offer humour, deeper subtexts, or just pure irrelevancy that adds to the pleasing ridiculousness of it all. The ‘dance’ moves are generally fitness based, mimicking downward facing dog yoga poses and aerobic-style stretches that links to the story told.

Gunn is a multi-faceted artist. Not only a performer but also a writer, director, designer and dramaturg. This all-rounder creative eye means she has a clear objective of what she wants the overall aesthetic and final product to look like. Even if she does have a crew of experts to mobilise her vision. The use of lighting and sound, designed by Niklas Pajanti and Kelly Ryall, feels integrated within the story, particularly the electronic repetition of beeps and noises composed to blare out of the ghetto blaster, which informs Gunn’s movements, as much as her movements informs the music.

The last segment does take a completely different turn to the rest of the piece, lying in stark contrast, which will certainly divide audiences. It’s very much a love it or hate it moment. It’s avant garde nature lives up to the stereotype of what performance art is considered to be by the uninitiated. But having had such tongue in cheek moments earlier in the monologue, poking fun out of the performance art world, this last part could be considered a send up to the medium in which Gunn works in.

Nicola has the ability of making a highly-polished, well rehearsed piece still have an air of spontaneity. Her self-awareness as a performance artist is refreshing, questioning the role art has in society. The instinctive comic-timing that Nicola possesses makes the humour come across unforced, even in outbursts of madness. At times people may feel a bit bewildered or uncomfortable, but generally this is a piece that’s highly accessible, proving that performance art is something to be enjoyed by all.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Sarah Walker

Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster

Purcell Room, Southbank Centre

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Ino Moxo | ★★½ | June 2019

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