Cape Farewell - Art & Climate Change

Earth, Wind and Fire

Friday 20 April 2007, 8.30pm
Westwerk, Hamburg

William Hunt

William Hunt's endurance related performances involve a degree of musical performativity played out under some situation of physical duress; hanging upside down, spinning on a turntable and most recently under water. For this exciting new commission at the Westwerk Gallery, Hunt employed garden patio furniture; the patio heater, water butt, washing line and decking, created a situation in which the body was at the mercy of earth, wind and fire.

Put Your Foot Down, 2006, saw a black BMW turned into a make shift aquarium. Hunt filled the car with water, climbed into the driver's seat and taking deep gulps from an oxygen tank sang out on exhalation.

Narrative, set up through song is frustrated by physical restraints, evoking feelings of threat, danger and self-destruction. Hunt places himself at the centre of a sculptural tableaux and enacts a relentless, endless return to absurdity, mindful of the futility of grand gestures yet bound to show off.

William Hunt's Earth, Wind and Fire was presented as part of Cape Farewell - Art & Climate Change, a collaboration with the British Council, Germany. The exhibition was created in partnership with the Natural History Museum, and has been made possible with support from Arts Council England, Cape Farewell's major arts funder. Also supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, The Bromley Trust, Toshiba, IXOS and plusequals, and our Hamburg partners Kampnagel Cultural Centre