- Venue
- Leeds Met Gallery
- Location
Xymphora, a group comprised of Hardeep Pandhal, Theo Reeves-Evison, Paul Smith and David Steans are developing an ongoing performative exploration of ritual and initiation. A project aimed at testing the possibility of ‘non-culturally specific’ ritual, a series of video works document processes of initiation through playful or forced submission and collective exercises in humiliation. The current total of seven videos present scenes that range from mildly uncomfortable to squirm-worthy. 'Waterworld' shows Reeves-Evison and Smith forcefully submerging each other face down in a river while 'Sicilian Coffin' shows each member drink a full bottle of wine while locked inside a boxed enclosure. 'Banana Battle Blues' requires the consumption of 3 litres of synthetic banana milkshake pumped through a tube, while 'Wank Tank' captures a gruelling session of group masturbation. The videos share a dead-pan tone and present a variety of activities that oscillate between the banal and the bizarre.
The live performance portion of 'Initiation Rites' took place at Leeds Met Gallery, presenting the audience with an afternoon of spectacle alongside a video viewing area. Three of the four members sat atop tall, plinth-like structures looking down onto a 'pit' where an alternating fourth member waited to be initiated. It was difficult to tell exactly what was happening, as the inside of the pit was not visible to viewers. Various liquids and solids were forced through holes drilled in a trap door that closed over top of the pit. A mixing process took place inside, culminating in a purging of a coloured liquid (different for each member) oozing and sputtering out of protruding tubes. Ingredients included milk, an unidentifiable custard substance, bits of gerkin, and milkshake mix. An overpowering thick milky sweetness filled the space, adding to the already humid atmosphere of the unsettling performance.
As an attempt to capture a sense of ritual practice, the combined performances managed to reveal themselves as an anthology of gratuitous and self-indulgent acts. The question of a ‘non-culturally specific ritual’ is here exposed in all its inherent contradiction. The activities of the artist-led initiative mimic the internal workings of a club or society that places ritualised gatherings (previews) and fetishisation of objects (artforms) at its very centre. Initiation Rites, in its staging and enactment of group ritual, also activates the politically volatile and exploitative aspects of initiation in a more general context, within the highly personal and intimate sphere of male bonding.
The building of an installation to house and facilitate such acts reveals an undercurrent of self-initiation, of shared transgression and a drive to submerse one’s self completely within the realm of the cult. Ritual becomes escape. This does not, however, remove the ritual from culture itself, as we are grimly reminded of our own position to this collective act, within the public context in which we are asked to view it. Held within this very exchange we become aware of an underlying political gesture, generated from the passive disregard embodied within gratuitous non-actions.
Lara Eggleton is an writer and curator who publishes work and directs projects both locally and internationally
