Why aren't there more magicians performing in art galleries? More and more, live performance work (esp dance, at least in the UK) is happening within the gallery's white walls.
I'm reminded here of the exhibition Magic Show (2009), from London's Hayward Gallery, which was curated by artist (and magician) Jonathan Allen, and critic and writer Sally O'Reilly. It was great to see magic enter the gallery space, though as far as I know that show didn't feature live performance (perhaps at the opening event?)
Leaving behind for now the question of where magic performances take place (and how those places might reconfigure magic as a performing art): below is a video recording of me performing at Rhubaba Gallery, to open the show for Edinburgh Art Festival 2014.
This trick with the 4 aces is one of my favourites, and here I was experimenting with a new presentation format, which I later abandoned due it being a little longwinded: even Frieze magazine, in their cooly detached blog review of the event, acknowledged it was "a complex card trick". But still it was great to perform magic at an art event: less chin scratching, more jaw dropping.
(I lie: the way I present magic lends itself quite nicely to chin scratching. I hope. In fact the ultimate aim would be a magic performance that induces chin scratching AND jaw dropping, simultaneously).
Yours truly,
V. Gambini
P.S. I should mention that the performance in the video is based on a version by the excellent Italian comedy magician Raul Cremona, who can be seen performing here (in Italian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5bBtM4o_iM
P.P.S. For info on the Hayward Magic Show, go to http://tinyurl.com/kq6fjq6
I'm reminded here of the exhibition Magic Show (2009), from London's Hayward Gallery, which was curated by artist (and magician) Jonathan Allen, and critic and writer Sally O'Reilly. It was great to see magic enter the gallery space, though as far as I know that show didn't feature live performance (perhaps at the opening event?)
Leaving behind for now the question of where magic performances take place (and how those places might reconfigure magic as a performing art): below is a video recording of me performing at Rhubaba Gallery, to open the show for Edinburgh Art Festival 2014.
This trick with the 4 aces is one of my favourites, and here I was experimenting with a new presentation format, which I later abandoned due it being a little longwinded: even Frieze magazine, in their cooly detached blog review of the event, acknowledged it was "a complex card trick". But still it was great to perform magic at an art event: less chin scratching, more jaw dropping.
(I lie: the way I present magic lends itself quite nicely to chin scratching. I hope. In fact the ultimate aim would be a magic performance that induces chin scratching AND jaw dropping, simultaneously).
Yours truly,
V. Gambini
P.S. I should mention that the performance in the video is based on a version by the excellent Italian comedy magician Raul Cremona, who can be seen performing here (in Italian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5bBtM4o_iM
P.P.S. For info on the Hayward Magic Show, go to http://tinyurl.com/kq6fjq6
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