JORDAN McKENZIE 'Red Haring'
In the last of his events as studio1.1 Artist in Residence 2009, Jordan McKenzie turns back to an explicit art historical referent. In Red Haring he will be inhabiting the persona of Keith Harings ubiquitous crawling baby. Covered head to toe in red glitter and wearing a red nappy, the path of allusion is complex. Illuminated in the pitch black gallery only by a single torch in the grasp of an audience member, this overgrown baby will be threading his way through the last day of Jay Cloths exhibition 'Beheaded'. In handing over the torch (the literal source of enlightenment) to a member of his audience (and for it to be passed in turn from one viewer to another) the weight of critical interpretation which could so easily crush this sequinned innocent incarnadine is shared, divested of its power and we are left each with our own febrile glimpses of either cliche or poetry. At the crux of interpretive possibilities between artist and audience, we are all in the dark trying to catch sight of a bloodied Everybaby.
About Red McKenzie
William 'Red' McKenzie was an American jazz vocalist and musician who played a comb as an instrument. He played the comb-and-paper by placing paper, sometimes strips from the Evening World, over the tines and blowing on it, producing a sound like a kazoo.
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