The Old Fire Station on Mayton Street saw an eclectic range of performances taking place on the afternoon of Saturday 16th July, the second afternoon of North Islington Exhibits.
The afternoon’s performances began with a political spoof of the past year’s newspaper headlines from performance artists Sh!t Theatre, made up of the ‘half barber shop quartet’ of Rebecca Fuller and Louise Mothersole.
‘Sh!t Theatre Presents Sh!t Bits’ included satirical swipes at the controversial Fox News network and the meat dress worn by Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards in September last year. A spoof version of Gaga’s hit Bad Romance included the lyrics ‘I want your dress, but I want it meat-free’.
High street chain Primark was also on the performers’ hit list, with a mock news bulletin revealing the company’s new ‘ethical’ campaign, in which customers could ‘sponsor the baby who made this t-shirt’ –receiving a picture of the baby who had made the t-shirt imprinted onto the garment.
The spate of foxes finding their way into people’s houses and the way the media portrayed them as dangerous was played upon, with the animals becoming a metaphor for everything that right wing news agencies disagree with: ‘They have aids! They want to marry each other!’ was a repeated line of the song, making a clear political point against newspapers that sensationalise these kinds of stories.
A song based on the breast milk that was for sale in Covent Garden was also performed, encouraging the audience to buy ‘Mile End’s MILF Milk’, the value for money version, instead of trekking all the way to the overpriced West End.
The second and third performances were from the Marisa Carnesky Cabaret Collective, made up of Dunja Kuhn and Sara Deberec. ‘Hawaiian Blood’ was the first piece, devised by Kuhn, and began with her dancing in a traditional grass skirt before drinking from a coconut and spilling what seemed to be blood all over herself. A nightmare-like vision ensued, with Kuhn smiling as she smeared the blood across her chest. The disturbing visual continued with the emergence of Deberec, dressed in a square, white body costume, and the ensuing close bodily interaction between the performers.
The final performance of the afternoon, entitled ‘Dali’s Eye’, saw Sara Deberec dressed as a literal ‘eye’ –lamenting the notion that it could only ever belong to someone else and thus never be recognised for itself. Dali, the eye made clear as it became angrier, raging at the sleeping artist on the floor (Kuhn, hidden underneath a blanket), would be nothing without his eye. The existentialist piece came to a close with a self destructive vision of the eye wishing cancer upon itself, in order to destroy the artist that it had no other way to escape from.
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