Page 52 - Studio International - February 1972

Young Contemporaries, is a recent and not theology is evoked by the title and the white beyond the specialized art gallery public. They
uncharacteristic illustration of the other side of beer-glass container is not unlike a monstrance. certainly mobilized a large attendance, but it is a
GASP's work. It marks the group's growing The insistence on presenting the objects to the moot point how many visitors were 'people
emphasis on carefully planned, highly structured audience recalls the priest offering the Host walking past in the street, Joe Bloggs and his
performances. As in a theatre, the audience is and the chalice to the congregation at Mass. The wife' (as Cornock described the audience he was
expected to sit back quietly and watch. emptying of the glasses resembles the libations looking for).
The ceremony, for that is what it is, is based at classical drinking parties. It was pitch dark inside the maze, and at the
on drinking habits in pubs. There are three Paradoxically, it is these echoes of authentic entrance the visitor was provided with a
tables, each of which carries a bottle of beer, a ceremonies which arouse suspicions about the `survival kit,' containing a pair of headphones
bottle opener and a pint glass held in a white, nature of the entire enterprise. 'Ritual' is a and a torch (a fully illuminated duplicate maze
disc-shaped frame. The three performers stand much used term: it can mean a sequence of was available for practice in another room).
behind the tables, wearing black clothes and magical actions which are believed to influence Any clue that might help him to orient himself
black plyboard aprons which hang from their the course of nature or to propitiate or praise was removed. The floors were covered in order
waists like skirts. Slowly, and in unison, they divine powers. The word is also loosely applied to conceal the direction of the boards. The wall
open the bottles, pour the beer and drink it. to repeated behaviour which confirms the panels were set at 6o degrees and 3o degrees and
Each object is held up and presented to the participant's sense of his personal or social not at the right-angles which make up our usual
audience before it is used. At the end, a small identity (conversations in pubs, for example). frame of reference. As the visitor passed along
quantity of liquid left in the bottoms of the But whatever the context, rituals are never the narrow passages, his torch flickered
glasses is poured on the ground. merely picturesque. Their symbolism is a uncertainly (due to a system of mercury
Despite the rigid discipline of the action, a function of experience; in fact, it feeds back to switches) and he received contradictory
few random elements are allowed to disturb it. experience and modifies or orders it. The same information over the headphones, depending
The bottle tops fall at will and no effort is made cannot be said of GASP's productions. on which part of the maze he found himself in.
to control the foam from the beer as it drips on Treble Top, Holy Trinity does, I suppose, draw From time to time he encountered large,
to the floor. Small points, maybe, but the sounds attention to some ritualistic features of human motorized balls as they made their rumbling
they make are amplified by the resounding behaviour and there is a sense in which the but determined way through the dark. All that
silence in which the ritual is conducted. They piece is a harmonious and rhythmically was missing was a Minotaur. But in
add a jokey note which relieves the otherwise satisfying statement in itself. But the symbols compensation, a suit of clothes, impregnated in
solemn atmosphere. have lost touch with the meanings and only the polyester resin, stood upright in a corner, as if
Every movement is precisely and accurately fact that this rubric of ceremonial gestures is a worn by an invisible man.
calculated. As the performers raise their glasses, `fine art event' gives it a semblance of coherence In many ways, it was an impressive display.
they simultaneously stick their little fingers out. and authenticity. Organized religions have The claustrophobia of a closed network of
This gesture has ironic connotations with demonstrated that rituals can acquire the status tunnels was fused with the agoraphobia of a hall
etiquette (if of a stereotyped order) as well as of art, but it does not follow that the reverse is of mirrors. In both its strengths and weaknesses,
being based on direct observation of drinkers. true. Labyrinth resembled a sideshow at a funfair. Its
The associations with religious rituals are Labyrinth was an environment staged at the technologically sophisticated effects were
very strong, if not always intentional. Christian Midland Group Gallery last year. Four artists powerfully presented. But they were only

3 GASP Ralph Selby, Stroud Cornock, Chris Dawson presented. As in a commercial maze, there was
Treble Top, Holy Trinity and Geoff Heaton joined forces to create a an apparent offer of involvement or participation,
Mixed media complex maze. The walls and ceilings were but in fact the spectator was a passive customer
4 Model of Labyrinth composed of reflective plastic {like Prentice's who voluntarily subjected-himself to an
at Midland Group Gallery Metalon). unfamiliar but tightly structured environment
Gallery area 33 x i8 ft
Screen units 6+ x 2+ ft Like the members of GASP, they wanted in order to receive an exciting sequence of strong
Mixed media to mount an event whose appeal would extend sensations. q