Press Release “I Want to Eat Fish and Chips” Performed by Patrick Lichty/Yael Gilks/Gazira Babeli (Second Front) Tate Modern/7th Floor 1 PM GMT, January 15th, 2008 (postdated) Produced in cooperation with Furtherfield.org
In the spirit of artists like Elaine Tin Nyo, Rikrit Tiravaija, and the entire tradition of experience-based performance, Second Front is pleased to present “I Want to Eat Fish and Chips”. This performance, commemorating the meeting in the UK of virtual performance artists Patrick Lichty (Man Michinaga) and Yael Gilks (Fau Ferdinand), took place on the 7th floor of the Tate Modern in London. Fish and Chips is the penultimate British food, and during this time, Lichty, Second Front, and UK friends will experience this culinary treat in the center of UK contemporary art. Also, during this time, Gazira Babeli will join the party from Second Life, and enjoy virtual fish on sticks. Due to short notice, enrollment was by invite only, and fees were merely those of the participant’s meal tab. Gazira Babeli was born in SL on 31st March 2006. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. It is totally based on the religion of Gadgets just as the world we consider as real... or Western. Yael Gilks is an Israeli-born virtual performance artist who has been working in virtual worlds for nearly a decade. For the past year, she has been part of the Second Life performance art group, Second Front, and has received a Second Prize in Virtual performance by theSecond Life community. Patrick Lichty is a conceptual media artist, critic, and curator, who has shown internationally since 1990, and has been exhibited in venues including ZKM Karkruhe, Ars Electronica, Whitney & Venice Bienniales. Second Front Second Front is the pioneering performance art group in the online avatar-based VR world, Second Life. Founded in 2006, Second Front quickly grew to its current 8 member troupe that includes Jeremy Owen Turner (Vancouver), Doug Jarvis (Victoria), Tanya Skuce (Vancouver), Gazira Babeli (Italy), Penny Leong Browne (Vancouver), Patrick Lichty (Chicago), Liz Solo (St. Johns) and Scott Kildall (San Francisco). Taking their influences from numerous sources, including Dada, Fluxus, Futurist Syntesi, the Situationist International and contemporary performance artists like Laurie Anderson and Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Second Front creates theatres of the absurd that challenge notions of virtual embodiment, online performance and the formation of virtual narrative. Created in 2006, they have already performed extensively, including in Vancouver, Chicago, New York, and has been featured in publications including SLate, Eikon, Realtime Arts (Australia), The Avastar (published by Axel-Springer, Germany) and most recently in Exibart (Italy). _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
