*** Fine parody of self-regarding conceptual artists
Dominic Coleman, formerly of fecund THEATRE [sic], bites the hand that nearly fed him for several years by lampooning his own former style.
Coleman is a familiar face to TV audiences this year from appearances in a slew of toe-curling commercials. But he's a clever, adept performer and writer, as this piece shows. Some visitors may take a while to realise that he is in fact taking the mickey, so close to the bone is his rendition of a naïve, precious "history maker" artist trying to create a performance-installation piece on his neighbouring housing estate.
The plot is straightforward: artist enlists a criminal druggie yob from the estate, who gradually takes over his house and family. It's the extent of artist Neil's denial of reality that provides the comedy: his continuing faith in the shamanic genius of Jim Morrison, or that doing a bonkers performance on the pavement outside his house is sufficiently "alpha-male" to entice his girlfriend back to him.
It's unlikely to cross over as a big mainstream success, but anyone who knows even a little about this kind of art – from Turner Prize news stories or the like – will find giggles galore. As Neil says, "People often criticise what they don't understand. Or like."
Written for divento.com
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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