Performance by Yvonne Parent

Description:

To accompany her exhibition Shooting Gallery, Yvonne Parent staged a multimedia reading performance with Paul Lang and Iain Macnaulty in the Grand Luxe Hall. 

The three artists were dressed in matching white button-up shirts and ties, and performed on a set that included a central table, monitors displayed on plinths, and three microphones arranged at the front of the stage. 

Throughout the performance, readings shifted between solo, duet, and simultaneous delivery—voices colliding in call-and-response patterns, overlapping rhythms, and moments of cacophony and harmony. The texts took on a musical cadence, with repeated phrases forming percussive beats.

The performance unfolded in cycles. To begin, Lang handed envelopes to Parent and Macnaulty, who read their contents—short statements about art, sex, gender, and religion—into microphones in unison. After each reading, pre-recorded sound effects of applause were triggered, and the two performers exited the stage, only for the choreography to repeat. 

In another sequence, Parent arranged three targets while Lang and Macnaulty played horns in a ceremonious manner. The performers drew small paint guns and fired at the targets, holding the guns near their waists so that the pigment streamed downward, evoking urine or ejaculate.

For the final act, monitors displayed a continuous animation of head-shaped targets gliding along a conveyor belt, recalling a carnival shooting gallery. The performers sat together at the table, heads wrapped in white bandages, and aimed their paint guns at their own temples as the steady sound of gun fire echoed in the background.

Video documentation is available upon request.