The Neon Gainsborough (original title: Gainsborough)
Gainsborough’s paintings (slide show) read as psychotic by a gay hysteric, sitters facing their own death, our own apocalypse. A visionary painter aligned with Blake, not the Public lie. - I.W.
A video on a monitor, accompanied by a 35mm slide show. The work was originally a performance in two parts, with an interval in the middle. At the end of each half, White unfurled a poster on the wall behind the monitor- each a blow up of a different page from the The Transvestite Transexual News.
The work was first presented as part of an event called F.A.G. (Film Art Gainsborough), organised together with artists Emma Hedditch and Jimmy Robert, as part of curator Polly Staple’s programme at Cubitt in London. It was shown again in an event the following year, organised by Mike Sperlinger to coincide with the Thomas Gainsborough exhibition at Tate Britain.
The only extant documentation of the original performances is a single photograph from the first iteration at Cubitt. (An installation version was developed by Mike Sperlinger and Kirsty Bell for the posthumous exhibition at Camden Arts Centre in 2018.)
First performance: 1 June 2002, Cubitt, London
Subsequently:
2003, Neon Gallery, London
Live performance in two parts with 35mm slides, video on monitor and posters | c. 35mins
2003
