Well, Hello Kitty...
Big cats as gatekeepers in the urban jungle–paintings. Performance channelling your inner-big-cat.
ABC Westside Gallery, Munich, 2017. Gauting Kunstverein, Rathaus Gauting, 2017
ABC Westside Gallery, Munich, 2017. Gauting Kunstverein, Rathaus Gauting, 2017
Cats, cats, everywhere cats. In old cities and new. Stone cats. Marble cats. Wooden cats. Plastic cats. Pompous cats. Big cats. Minding gates. Looking for predators. Warning against the enemy. They prey. They prowl. The nocturnal giants surround us. Their fixed gazes are frozen in stone and their authority is masked by the urban cacophony. But their power lives inside us and our subconscious. In times like these, we need to channel our inner ‘Big Cat’.
Yoga and food performance.
The artist was dressed as a domestic yogi in a bright pink training suit. She stood in front of her artworks on a red yoga mat. The sound of the lions roared from a small boom box echoed around the gallery. The performance ‘Echte Biester’ began with the artist standing meditatively in front of her artworks, seven large-scale paintings in fluoro colours on paper of roaring lions. Richardson invited exhibition attendees to join her in a round of yoga to learn the benefits of the cat and lion yoga poses, and to learn how to channel the animals’ strengths. Alternatively, she invited people to be a chorus and read words out loud that related to attributes of each animal. Participants took their places on the mats or lined up with their chorus words in hand.
Real Beasts (Echte Biester) ran a little bit like a yoga class, with the artist demonstrating and explaining the benefits of each pose before asking the audience to join her. She began with basic relaxation exercises and then moved to the cat pose and then the lion pose. At each phase of the performance, the chorus group called out the attributes related to the animal, such as independent, agile, playful, adventurous. The group yoga ended on a high as everybody learnt how to roar like a lion. After going through the poses together there was a buzz in the room.
Everybody thought the real beasts performance was over. But then Richardson had one last surprise. She thanked everyone for being brave and participating in the performance. And, as a thank you and reward for leaving their comfort zones, she offered everyone a bright pink, home-baked Cat’s Tongue biscuit. Immediately everyone started putting the biscuits on their own tongues while they let out new roars and took selfies
Well, Hello Kitty...I-VII, acrylic on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
Real Beasts I-II, acrylic on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
Performance - Real Beasts, Yoga and food performance, one-off, 2017
Yoga and food performance.
The artist was dressed as a domestic yogi in a bright pink training suit. She stood in front of her artworks on a red yoga mat. The sound of the lions roared from a small boom box echoed around the gallery. The performance ‘Echte Biester’ began with the artist standing meditatively in front of her artworks, seven large-scale paintings in fluoro colours on paper of roaring lions. Richardson invited exhibition attendees to join her in a round of yoga to learn the benefits of the cat and lion yoga poses, and to learn how to channel the animals’ strengths. Alternatively, she invited people to be a chorus and read words out loud that related to attributes of each animal. Participants took their places on the mats or lined up with their chorus words in hand.
Real Beasts (Echte Biester) ran a little bit like a yoga class, with the artist demonstrating and explaining the benefits of each pose before asking the audience to join her. She began with basic relaxation exercises and then moved to the cat pose and then the lion pose. At each phase of the performance, the chorus group called out the attributes related to the animal, such as independent, agile, playful, adventurous. The group yoga ended on a high as everybody learnt how to roar like a lion. After going through the poses together there was a buzz in the room.
Everybody thought the real beasts performance was over. But then Richardson had one last surprise. She thanked everyone for being brave and participating in the performance. And, as a thank you and reward for leaving their comfort zones, she offered everyone a bright pink, home-baked Cat’s Tongue biscuit. Immediately everyone started putting the biscuits on their own tongues while they let out new roars and took selfies
Well, Hello Kitty...I-VII, acrylic on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
Real Beasts I-II, acrylic on paper, 100 x 70 cm, 2017.
Performance - Real Beasts, Yoga and food performance, one-off, 2017