3/6/08

Clown Crash - Dirty Honky


a performance and exhibition by Dirty Honky; the pig nosed clown

Thursday 20th March from 3pm to 9pm

Exhibition will continue until April 25th, view by appointment.

Unable to pay escalating rent and council tax, Dirty Honky, the pig-nosed clown alter-ego of artist Alexis Milne, has been kicked out of his home and is looking for a place to crash. The solution is to install his purpose built performance shed, in Apartment.

On Thursday 20th March from 3pm to 9pm Dirty Honky opened his shed doors to the public inviting them inside to play “Honkopoly” his own version of the popular board game Monopoly. In doing so he allowed property starved citizens to become property tycoons, enabling them to temporarily enjoy the prestige and social status that comes with climbing the property ladder. His actions highlighted the urgent need for affordable housing for young creatives, such as Honky, who are all too often ousted from developing urban areas that they have culturally enriched. ‘Clown Crash’ by Dirty Honky subverts the conventional realms of clowning to comment on the social constructs that both celebrate the masses and alienate the individual.

Dirty Honky’s performance shed started its life in a Salford backyard. After receiving backing from Contact Theatre as part of The Manchester International Festival, Milne transported the shed to Selfridges department store in Manchester, inviting shoppers to write their filthiest confessions on the inside walls of his shed. Honky was then invited by the Manchester Doodlebug collective to exhibit his dirty secrets shed at the Big Chill festival in the Malvern Hills. Most recently the shed featured in the ‘Future Can Wait’ exhibition during London Art Week.