Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard\'s Press Pack

The Guardian (2003)

The Independent (2004) Sleazenation (2003)

Frieze (1996)

Plan B (2005)

Artforum (2006)

Mojo (2003)

Time Out (2008)

Frieze (2006)Art Papers (2007)

The Independent (1998)

Huge (2009)

The Guardian (2004)The Independent (2006)

Iain Forsythand Jane Pollard

Studio: +44 (0) 20 7652 2259Email: studio@iainandjane.comWebsite: www.iainandjane.com

Represented by Kate MacGarry7a Vyner Street, London E2 9DGGallery: +44 (0) 20 8981 9100

‘Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard at Art Basel Miami Beach’. Hiroshi Kagiyama, Huge, March 2009

‘Golden Generation: The 20 Best Up-And-Coming Artists’. Alice Jones, The Independent, 10 October 2008

‘Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard at Kate MacGarry’. Conor Carville, Frieze, November 2008

Tit-for-tat exchanges can go on forever, especially when it comes to the bruised, obsessive feelings that orbit ex-lovers. Perfect material, then, for Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, artists renowned for music-oriented reenactments that inject an emotional dimension into art. Mining this, their new video Walking over Acconci (Misdirected Reproaches) (2008) is an echo, in both form and content, of Vito Acconci’s 1973 Walk-Over (Indirect Approaches) as well as a kind of ‘back chat’ to a previous work by the artists, Walking After Acconci (Redirected Approaches) (2005).

In the 2005 work MC Plan B slams his ex, while this new work gives space to a female voice, that of Miss Odd Kidd, another rhyme-slinger whose lyrics similarly capitalise on what’s deemed an authentic urban London argot. She stalks a corridor reciting a monologue that pings between wit and aggression and is peppered with colloquialisms (“Wakey, wakey, hands off snaky”) and put-downs (“Big egos, really small penises: Napoleon syndrome”). Like the wordplay of their titles, these works pun on and update Acconci’s original, in which the artist, who addresses the camera smoking, humming and pacing a corridor, lets rip against an imagined ex-lover – for whom the camera and the viewer act as stand-in.

The original is a hair-prickling example of Acconci’s take on performance art as a theatre of aggression, where supposedly private behaviour is made public, and the boundaries between acting and exhibitionism on one side of the camera, and voyeurism on the other, make for a sadomasochistic exchange. It’s is an idea that Forsyth and Pollard make a direct connection with, and some of the lines that attempt to rumble the role of the spectator feel a little too self-conscious for twenty-first-century ears: “Are you there? Are you listening? Are you waiting?” But perhaps this is the point. While the ‘all the world’s a stage’ thing was hardly new in the 1970s, today Acconci’s take on narcissistic performance and voyeurism is so normal within mass culture as to be invisible, with the ‘stars’ and interactive audiences of reality shows and social networking sites being the most ubiquitous examples.

Where the artists are really successful is in their play with this sophisticated layering of poses. In a twist on the original, rather than performing themselves, they have cast a particular kind of professional performer: alternative music stars who channel a ‘genuine’ street voice. There is no doubt that what we are shown is staged. However, in a homely rainbow-striped cardy, clunky gold jewellery and a ducklike flat-footed strut, Miss Odd Kidd is not your usual pop starlet, and her leftfield persona is given a further authentic nuance by occasional stutters in the monologue. This all crackles enticingly against her reliance on hand-me-down posturing, ‘acting hard’ and stock phrases. As with Acconci, the work still manages to raise pertinent contemporary questions about what is ‘real’ and what is ‘performed’ behaviour, and where, if anywhere, such performance ends. Skye Sherwin

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Kate MacGarry, London5 September – 12 October

REVIEWS: UK

‘Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard at Kate MacGarry’. Skye Sherwin, Art Review, December 2008

‘Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’. JJ Charlesworth, Time Out, 2nd October 2008

‘To Be Immersed In The Experience of Now’. Earl Miller, C magazine, Spring 2008

‘Retro/Necto: From Beyond The Grave of the Politics of Re-enactment’. Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Art Papers, November/December 2007

‘Neocon: Ritorni Contemporanei Al Concettuale’. Cristiana Perrella, Flash Art, April-May 2007

‘Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’. Ossian Ward, Monopol, January 2007

‘Music: The Best of 2006’. Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Artforum, December 2006

‘To Be Immersed In The Experience of Now’. Earl Miller, C magazine, Spring 2008

‘The Voice Within’. Chris Mugan, The Independent - Arts & Books Review, 13th October 2006

Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard

Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard

‘Forsyth & Pollard: Take Two’. Charles Danby, i-D Magazine, Issue 267, June-July 2006

‘Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’. Miria Swain, Untitled, Autumn 2005

‘Lover’s View’. Helen Sumpter, The Big Issue, 17th-23rd October 2005

‘Remake/Remodel’. Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Plan B, April/May 2005

‘Cream of the crop’. Charlotte Edwards, The Independent, 14th July 2004

‘London’s top 25 new artists’. Catriona Warren, Art Review, July/August 2004

‘The Second Coming’. Vivienne Gaskin, Schnitt, Summer 2003

‘We Love Each Other’. Craig Taylor, The Guardian Weekend Magazine, 17th April 2004

‘It Beats Bingo!’. Iain Aitch, The Guardian, 17 March 2003

‘Rewind and repeat to fade’. Ian White, Art Review, June 2003

‘Would a band by any other name smell as sweet’. Niru Ratnam, i-D Magazine, July 2003

‘Spastic Fantastic!’. Michael Williams, Sleaze Nation, May 2003

‘Cramp Styling’. Ian Harrison, Mojo, May 2003‘Psychotic Reaction’. Cathi Unsworth, Mojo, September 2003

‘Boy, could they play guitar’. Nick Coleman, The Independent, 10th July 1998

‘Pop Art’. Susan Corrigan, i-D Magazine, August 1997

‘Reel Around The Fountain’. David Barrett, Frieze, March-April 1996