Yuan Cai and JJ Xi

Far West Live

Mad For Real

To mark Far West, Arnolfini Live has brought together artists who concoct and challenge East and West stereotypes to dig into the fissures between us.

Far West is a major cross artform project exploring the neww cultural and economic relationships that are emerging as the economic centre of the world shifts towards the East. The project includes exhibitions, off site presentations, performance, film and a range of talks and events.

Yuan Cai and JJ Xi make strong use of irony in their performance and photographic work, infamously jumping on Tracey Emin’s Bed or pissing on Duchamp's Urinal. Drawing on seemingly banal subject matter they make witty and absurd commentaries through ironic actions and posturing.

Visitors to Arnolfini and passers by will be greeted by the sight of the artists engaged in a soy sauce and ketchup fight in a glass cube on the quayside. Using strong physical and vocal gestures which evoke Tai Chi and Qi Gong, they create splurges of colour slowly obliterating the space around them and their own bodies. After a short time, the audience is literally blocked out through the covered walls. The work is about globalisation and marginalisation: although the popular products of global consumerism are instantly accessible and immediately recognisable, the gradual erosion of clarity through the process of splashing the coloured liquids causes chaos and confusion, and eventual obscurity.

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