Gurning at Patrons (2025)

 

For this work I invited three world champion gurners to move through the Royal Academy’s cast corridor during the annual patrons’ open studios event. I was drawn to gurning as a British folklore tradition, formalised as a competition at the Egremont Crab Fair since the Middle Ages, where the face becomes elastic, grotesque, and strange. I’m interested in how this kind of performance collides with the codes of an institution like the RA—what happens when carnivalesque distortion meets formality, or when humour pushes against reverence.

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The work was performed in The Royal Academy of Arts' historic cast corridor which led to a group exhibition in the Weston Studio gallery in which Act one & Act two were situated. The performance was also streamed live into my studio.

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Thank you to Mark, Claire and Ding. 

Camera: Yasmine Akim

Video: Tamsin Kavanagh

iPhone live streamers: Bea Mobbs, Adi Alys, Casson Holland

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