Performance art act The Iceman aka Anthony Irvine has cropped up in this blog over the years, including his pure art incarnation as AIM. Last year, I blogged about AIM's month-long art exhibition residency at the Guggleton Farm Arts centre in Dorset.…
Performance art act The Iceman aka Anthony Irvine has cropped up in this blog over the years, including his pure art incarnation as AIM. Last year, I blogged about AIM's month-long art exhibition residency at the Guggleton Farm Arts centre in Dorset.
Now, blow me down, AIM - or it might be The Iceman or it might be Anthony or it might be all three - is/are back there for another month-long exhibition/residency, 12th July-10th August.
JOHN: Are you telling me your artistic residency last year was so successful they have invited you back?
ANTHONY: Yes.
JOHN: I'm sure you told me that the whole point of your act - your oeuvre - was failure.
ICEMAN: I failed at being a failure. It's all random. This year's show is titled "Hiceggledy Piceggledy".
JOHN: Why?
AIM: Exactly.
JOHN: Last year, you were selling off your artworks. This year, are you just selling off the ones you didn't manage to sell last year?
ICEMAN: No. AIM has painted 100 new paintings since his last exhibition at The Gugg.
JOHN: You are now calling yourself AIM as your artist name instead of The Iceman, your performing name.
AIM: AIM and The Iceman are one and the same person.
JOHN: But in fact you are really Anthony Irvine…
ICEMAN: Humanly speaking, AIM and The Iceman coalice as Anthony Irvine. They melt into each other.
JOHN: And these new paintings are…?
ANTHONY: As usual, the paintings are primarily based on the relational art of AIM's previous live performance work, as The Iceman, who melted blocks of ice in public. Or tried to. In a very real sense, every image is a self-portrait.
JOHN: And all three of you or, at least, AIM, are flogging off artworks at the exhibition?
ANTHONY: Taking a leaf from Andy Warhol's dictum that business is the best kind of art, The Iceman, yes, is going to have his own shop on site. Much aesthetic merchandice will be available for purchice at his usual bargain prices.
JOHN: Enough with the linguistic 'ice' inclusions…
ICEMAN: …and, apart from the actual fine art, other wares available will be postcards, posters, Anthony Irvine and Robert Wringham's new picture art book, Melt It! The Book of The Iceman, etchings, engravings, signed photocopied Polaroids of ice blocks, unique black and white block copies on authentic fax paper and Anthony Irvine's children's book Lockdown Melter.
JOHN: This sounds like it might risk becoming commercially viable.
ANTHONY: There is something for everyone!… THE BLOCKS LIVE ON! That's The Iceman's mantra. THE BLOCKS LIVE ON! The Iceman will have his own block on site at the Gugg making daily appearances during the run of the show. Hopefully it will be the same block, depending on the efficiency of the Gugg's fridge.
JOHN: The same block every day? Will The Iceman not try to melt it?
ICEMAN: (SILENCE)
JOHN: You are also having a documentary made about you…
ANTHONY: The Iceman's block-buster film Melt It! The Film of The Iceman is due to hit screens in 2025.
On the opening night of the Hiceggledy Piceggledy exhibition at The Gugg - July 12th - the Iceman's film crew will be mingling with the visitors. There will also be a live conversation with Rob Wringham [Melt It's producer] in the Barn.
JOHN: A deep conversation?
ICEMAN: Deep. Deep. Always deep.
JOHN: How deep?
ANTHONY: Deep. I would like to share one thought from another artist which, for me, relates to my Block life... Roman Opalka, the Polish painter, said: "Time, as we live it and as we create it, embodies our progressive disappearance."
JOHN: Symbolic of The Iceman's ice-malting escapades?
ICEMAN: The transicence of life.
JOHN: Enough with the linguistic 'ice' inclusions, though it's always a pleasure to hear of your exploits.
No comments:
Post a Comment