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Through
actions that at times
stress the visual, the
visceral, and the violent
aspects of social rituals,
the British team of
Harry and Harry Kipper
perform in a fashion
that combines the zany
theatrics of Spike Jones
with a kind of scatological
slapstick that is all
their own. The viewer
emerges from a Kipper
Kids performance with
a feeling for the relationship
between ordered social
rituals and conventions
and the festering violence
that lies beneath the
facade of mannered behavior.
In the string of untitled
actions that the Kippers
performed in galleries
and bars in Europe and
North Africa between
1971 and 1975, the essential
character of the relationships
between the two characters
was formed. Cartoon
like, with their clean-shaven
heads, bizarre costumes,
drawn-in beards , and
exaggerated motions,
the Kippers portray
two geezers that might
have escaped from a
Krazy Kat comic strip.
In nearly every piece,
the following scenario
takes place: first a
ritual is introduced
(high tea or a birthday
party, for example);
second an array of props
(mostly found objects
whose repeated use gives
them nearly equal status
with the performers
) are arranged on a
small tabletop; finally,
the tableau is utilized
as the scene disintegrates
into a morass of restrained
violence, punctuated
by monosyllabic grunts
and wordless sounds
of gastric distress.
It is this wordless
language that both links
the Kipper works together
and allows them to be
successfully understood
as easily in Tunisia
as on the Sunset Strip.
Although the Kipper's
work strikes a blow
at the kinds of formal
performance that embrace
a minimal aesthetic,
there is a formal structure
to their major works
that can be traced.
For as these small plays
unfold in succession,
all situated in the
center of what appears
to be a crudely constructed
boxing ring, it becomes
clear that there are
two main correspondences
in their actions. First,
the work starts off
quite silly, though
precisely coordinated.
The audience thinks
that they are being
put on. As the work
progresses (and until
recently, as they consumed
more and more beer and
liquor during the piece)
the level of precision
decreases and the corresponding
level of frustration
turned to violence increases
in inverse proportion.
The audience begins
to get uneasy at this
point. Finally, the
work becomes "hog wild",
often with real violence
of the earlier sketches.
The
key to the work is that
all relationships are
brought into question:
the internal relationship
between the performers
and their action ("act"),
the relationship between
the actions themselves
(as the pattern becomes
apparent), and finally
the relationship between
the performers and the
audience who grow increasingly
queasy and aware of
the violent voyeurism
into which they find
themselves trapped.
The
Kippers have also been
known to engage their
audience directly, generating
a spirit of mayhem that
lasts through the piece
and sometimes well after
the work is "finished."
In this sense, the audience
is left with a charge
tempered by a kind of
pervasive anxiety that
sets the experience
off from most theatrical
entertainment. The Kippers
can be seen as occupying
a place somewhere between
the kind of formal antics
of Gilbert and George,
the British artists
who pioneered the field
of " living sculpture."
The living theater of
Julian Beck, and the
Austrian performance
artist Hermann Nitsch,
whose orgy-mystery theater
produces a similar cathartic
experience through the
execution of bloody
Dionysian ritual performances
of sacrifice and rebirth.
In
their current works
the Kippers have concentrated
on the visual aspects
of the performance,
and have begun to see
the end result of the
piece as the accretion
of food and debris on
the canvas flooring
upon which they perform.
Their performances seem
to have become , in
this instance, a parody
of action painting where
the process is literally
reveled-in.
Harry
and Harry Kipper are
portrayed by Brian Routh
and Martin von Haselburg.
Routh was born in Gates
Head County, Durham,
England in 1948. Von
Haselberg was born in
Buenos Aires, Argentina
in 1949. Both artists
attended E. 15 Drama
School in London, and
began performing together
in 1971. They currently
reside in Los Angeles.
By
David Ross
Photo
Shoot. Greg Gorman.
1987.
Cobden's
Head Pub. London. 1971.
Sheet
from Regan Projects
Gallery Show. 1984.
"Shipwrecked
Kipper's." 1972.
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