Page 28 - Studio International - May 1970

Gilbert and

George

Michael Moynihan

`I think that these two young men are too I had first met them at the International Jazz We had prepared answers—mostly "Yes" or
radical for us at present', said Michael Kus- Festival at Plumpton Race Course, Sussex, "No". We wore dark suits, collar and tie, and
tow, Director of the Institute of Contemporary last August, when they filled a gap between when they asked "Why are you dressed like
Arts, referring to an offer by 'Gilbert and two pop groups and an audience of some that?" we said "Only to be normal".'
George' to present one of their 'living sculp- 20,000 teenagers sat in mostly stunned silence There has also been the exhibition in the
tures' at an exhibition at Nash House in the as they jerked, robot-like, around a small rest-room of a Bethnal Green bacon factory,
Mall last summer. table-top to the strains of 'Underneath the where George had worked in a college vaca-
They had suggested showing their interpreta- Arches' from an ancient portable. tion—forty different paintings of slices of
tion of Bud Flanagan's 'Underneath the In the beer tent afterwards two members of bacon done by children George had somehow
Arches', or just standing, statuelike, on six- The Who had come up to say how fascinating coerced in a local youth club.
foot high pedestals, 'speaking about beauty —what did it really mean? They were parti- On January26, 1969 a number of Hackney art
and feeling' into a tape-recorder. cularly intrigued by the multi-coloured metal- teachers and educationalists turned up at the
Gilbert Proesch, son of an Italian shoemaker lic paint that glinted on their faces and hands. Geffrye Museum, E2, for the 'first showing of
in the Dolomites, and George Passmore, George said it would be dangerous to keep Gilbert Proesch's Readings from a Stick'. This
Devon-born, educated at Dartington Hall, on for long because it sealed the pores and that consisted of the flashing onto a screen in
married with a 16-months-old daughter, met it was rather painful to get off. They use Ajax. a darkened room of a succession of 160 colour
two years ago when they were students learn- It would be difficult to laugh at Gilbert and transparencies of Gilbert's resin walking-
ing sculpture at St Martin's School of Art. George. Far from being tongue-in-cheek,they stick. It took an hour and George, showing a
Now, as they put it in an ornate 'manifesto' give the impression of deliberately suffering in snapshot of a councillor walking stiffly past
recently sent to leading art figures in Europe the cause of their Art. Teachers at St Martin's him as he held out a hand at the exit, recalls:
and America, they are 'walking along a new School of Art, where they first made their `Some people had difficulty in shaking hands
road. They left their little studio with all the mark by removing a door from an attic for some reason.'
tools and brushes, taking with them only some studio, replacing it with glass to give an But their undoubted triumph to date was
music, gentle smiles on their faces and the `aquarium effect' to abstract exhibits arranged The Meal on May 14, 1969. The invitation, sent
most serious intentions in the world.' on a litter of artificial snow on the floor, to a thousand 'art people', read: 'Isabella
They have recently performed or been booked recall them as 'given to long stretches of Beeton and Doreen Marriott will cook a meal
to perform works at, among other places, the silence'. for the two sculptors, Gilbert and George,
Kunstalle (municipally-run art gallery) at Police had to come to their aid when they and their guest, Mr David Hockney, the
Düsseldorf, and private galleries at Klagen- performed their Nerve Sculpture during an painter. Richard West will be their waiter.
furt, Austria, and Loenersloot, Holland. The open-air concert by the Blind Faith in Hyde They will dine in Hellicars' beautiful music
Tate Gallery has politely turned down their Park. George tries to explain : 'You know room at "Ripley", Sunridge Avenue, Bromley,
offer to appear in its lecture-room. They when you're walking and you suddenly feel Kent. One hundred numbered and signed
appear to be living on private means and Mrs there's someone you know coming up behind iridescent souvenir tickets are now available
Passmore's earnings as a kindergarten teacher. you and your leg and arm and body muscles at three guineas each. We do hope you are
`Whatever else they are, they are emphatically go stiff with nerves ? That's how we walked, able to be present at this important art
not phoneys,' insists Mr Kustow. completely unrelaxed, a zombie-like walk, occasion.'
In their austere, mauve-painted flat near two circuits right round the audience.' George explains that Richard West, Lord
Spitalfields Market, in a dilapidated street At one stage a group of Skinheads started to Snowdon's butler, was introduced by Doreen
mainly occupied by the rag trade, they are jeer and throw things and police had to form Marriott, a professional cook, the occasion
withdrawn, intense, rarely smiling, as they a cordon to protect them. 'But it was really a being given sufficient dignity by the partici-
outline, with the aid of snapshots and lavish very impressive sculpture' says George, 'with pation of the well-known Mr Hockney, and
invitation cards, highlights of their experi- cameras clicking and teenagers asking us the fact that the house was hired from the Arts
ments in Conceptual, or Microemotive Art. questions about sex, drugs, religion, politics. Council. Isabella Beeton referred to the late