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Performances

Performances

Documentation of some performances I’ve done over the past ten years. See the performance menu above for more exhibition/show details and commissioning information about each one, and photo credits. From top: DoxBox trustbot, Opportunity, Unfortunately, Hunter Moon, The Portland Office for Imaginary History ’18, The Mel Bear of Melbourne, A Five Year Old Could Do That, Colonel Robin, The Portland Office for Imaginary History ’16, Quid Pro Quo, The Helmsdale Helm, Artbollocks Theatre, Nowhere Plains, Stendhal Syndrome, Magickal Realism, R*****.

DoxBox Trustbot 2019-2020

Two people wearing pink masks and wigs, one wearing a pink kimono and the other wearing a pink jumpsuit, sitting at a table with a gold tablecloth. On the desk is a cubic robot on wheels, with a smiling face.
A person dressed in pink, with a pink mask, leading a small pink robot with a smiling face from a stage.
A person in a pink mask, pink wig and pink kimono, sitting at a gold desk with a pink, cube shaped robot that has a smiling face. A man is listening closely to the robot.

Hunter Moon 2018

A seaside fortune-teller style sign. There is a picture of a man showing cards and wearing a dinner jacket and a red devil mask. The text says: PAST PRESENT FUTURE: HUNTER MOON. NEGATIVITY DECYCLED. LIQUID CRYSTAL DIVINATION. Your technology is the mirror to your soul, lifting the veil to your future.
Alistair Gentry performing Hunter Moon. He is sitting at a desk; on its surface are a jar wrapped in wires containing black objects, a bright and unpleasant magenta light, a deck of cards, Sharpie markers and an open paper Argos catalogue. Alistair is wearing a dinner jacket, a bow tie, a red devil mask and a black wig.

The Portland Office for Imaginary History 2018

Alistair Gentry and members of the audience for The Portland Office for Imaginary History. They are all looking through a frame at something out of shot. Alistair is wearing a khaki ranger's uniform, a black hat and a high visibility yellow vest.
Alistair Gentry and members of the audience on a tour for the Portland Office for Imaginary History. They are walking in front of a beige stone house with an arched porch entrance. Red roses are growing over the house.

Opportunity, Unfortunately 2017

Alistair Gentry dressed as a stereoptypical artist in a smock, beret and "artistic" moustache. He is drawing in a notepad, standing in a shopping street with a cobbled pavement.

The Mel-Bear of Melbourne 2017

A green, full body costume made of wicker, greengrocer's artificial grass, and fresh plants and vegetables.

A Five Year Old Could Do That 2017

Alistair Gentry sitting on a river bank, sitting on a bench and playing a small red toy piano. He is wearing a dinner suit and a bow tie. There is man wearing a blue T shirt on the right, talking to Alistair.

Colonel Robin (Christmas Presence) 2016

Alistair Gentry as Colonel Robin. A brown fur mask with gold trim and holes for the eyes, nose and mouth- a white fur body, white cotton gloves, and he is wrapped in strings of sleigh bells and coloured Christmas lights.

The Portland Office for Imaginary History 2016

Alistair Gentry in The Portland Office for Imaginary History: dressed in a khaki uniform with shorts and a cap, he stands in front of a stone wall showing a diagram of various plants. In the foreground, a woman is looking on and laughing.

£ (Quid) Pro Quo 2016

Alistair Gentry performing Quid Pro Quo in a grand but dereilict room. he is wearing a dinner suit, bow tie and a Japanese Tengu mask with a read face. He is reading from a book called The Gift.

The Helmsdale Helm 2015

A person wearing a silver. engraved Viking helmet. They have a false ginger beard and they are shouting or screaming. In the background is a hillside covered in yellow flowering gorse.

Artbollocks Theatre, series 3 2015

Alistair Gentry in Artbollocks Theatre: he has his arms folded and he is dressed as a police officer, except that the police helmet is much too small.

Artbollocks Theatre live 2016

Alistair Gentry in a live performance of Artbollocks Theatre: he is dressed in a Shakespearean costume, standing on stage in front of large curtain, reading from a script.

Artbollocks Theatre, series 1 2013

Alistair Gentry in Artbollocks Theatre: he is wearing a dinner jacket and bow tie. The words SURPRISINGLY DECEPTIVE PLANE appear is large, red capital letters in front of his face.

Nowhere Plains 2005

Alistair Gentry Nowhere Plains: he is in orbit above Mars, wearing a space suit with a clear bubble helmet.

Stendhal Syndrome 2011

Alistair Gentry in Stendhal Syndrome: he is standing in a blank white studio, wearing a pale blue shirt. The word "psychiatrist" appears in large black letters above him.
Alistair Gentry in Stendhal Syndrome: the artists stands in front of a hypnotic black and white spiral and a bright white light is coming out of his head.

Magickal Realism at MACBA, Spain 2013

Alistair Gentry's performance lecture Magickal Realism, live on stage. He is wearing a skeleton costume and a starched Elizabethan ruff. He is breading from a book bound in black leather and holding up a photograph.

Magickal Realism 2009

Alistair Gentry in a combination of modern and Elizabethan dress, with a black hood and a white, starched ruff.
Alistair Gentry in Elizabethan dress, including a white, starched ruff.
Alistair Gentry wearing a cap with long ear flaps, a plague mask with a long pointed nose, and an Elizabethan starched ruff.

R***** 2014

A person in a dinner suit and a white rabbit mask talks to a female tourist.
A person in a black dinner suit and wearing white gloves and a white rabbit mask points to the left of the picture. there are plants and part of a castle in the background.
A close up of a white rabbit mask with a pink nose, whiskers, and bulbous pink eyes.

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The Portland Office for Imaginary History

The Portland Office for Imaginary History

A satirical tourist information office complete with fact sheets, walking tours, maps and souvenirs.

Read about this project.

A monochrome engraving of people working on large sheets of paper in a wood-panelled office. There is a hexagonal placard on the wall, with an eye inside a pyramid in the centre.
The upstairs confabulation room of the Office for Imaginary History, circa 1867.
A newspaper from the 1970s with the headline LOCAL YOUTH SEES 'LIZARD MAN' and an "artist's impression" of the Lizard Man sighting- a hunched, scaly figure with horns and sharp teeth.
Portland Lizard Man.
A Victorian photograph of a museum specimen- a skeletal, rabbit like figure with horns emerging from the top of its head.
Horned lagomorphs of Portland.
A monochrome engraving of a masked man on horseback either handing over or taking a woman in a white dress and a feathered hat from an early motor car with two men sitting inside it.
Illegal wife sales.
Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary History ranger, holding an empty coat hanger with with a label that says "Portland Office for Imaginary History imaginary souvenir t-shirt (imagine your own design)"
Imaginary souvenir T-shirt. Photo by Paul Box.
White wax bunny candles for sale, with a horn/wick emerging from each of their foreheads.
Taboo underground mutton candles. Photo by Paul Millson.
Black and white image of Alistair Gentry in an Imaginary History Ranger costume, talking to visitors in the office. On the wall behind him are information sheets and maps of Portland.
The Portland Office for Imaginary History in 2016. Photo by Paul Box.
Souvenirs from the Portland Office for Imaginary History: white wax bunny candle, Unique handmade artisinal dinosaur, purple P.O.f.I.H. fabric patch, Craft Eco Pebble, "plus a selection of postcards and stickers".
Souvenirs for sale in the Office for Imaginary History gift shop by Alistair Gentry.
Portland Office for Imaginary History logo- it is hexagonal, in shades of purple, with two "normal" eyes and a third purple eye placed between and above them. In the borders it says in Latin "Custode Terre Portus Ridiculum".
Badge of the Portland Office for Imaginary History by Alistair Gentry.
A print called "Flora of Portland" showing drawings of many plants with fantastical or illogical names.
Flora of Portland by Alistair Gentry.
A postcard labelled "The Isle of Portland" and showing four municipal tourist attraction signs: Keith Finch's House (CLOSED), Lizard Man, Fish Falls, Historical Kidnap Area (300 yds).
Signs for imaginary tourist sites on Portland by Alistair Gentry.

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Imaginary history tour for wheelchair and mobility scooter users. Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary History Ranger, leading a group of people in mobility scooters through a public park with large trees.
Imaginary history tour for wheelchair and mobility scooter users. Photo by Peter Millson.
Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary history ranger, holding up a frame with a transparency inside it. he and three other people are looking through it.
Imaginary history tour with transparency viewer. Photo by Peter Millson.
Alistair Gentry dressed as an Imaginary History ranger with a hi-vis jacket and cap, with mobility scooter users beside an old stone building.
Mobility scooter safari, 2021. Photo by Brendan Buesnel.
Seen from ground level, people on mobility scooters. Each scooter has a colourful sign on the front with a circular design and the the words "b-side festival".
Mobility scooter safari, 2021. Photo by Brendan Buesnel.
Magickal Realism

Magickal Realism

Performance lecture with live video mix, inspired by the life, death and magic of John Dee.

Read about this project.

Promotional flyer for Magickal Realism, Elizabethan style, describing the show and decorated with devils, angels, and rabbits.
Promotional flyer for Magickal Realism.
Alistair Gentry in Magickal Realism, wearing a cap with long ear flaps, an Elizabethan ruff, and a plague mask with a long pointed nose.
Magickal Realism, 2010.
A small bust of John Dee with an iridescent black finish.
John Dee bust by Alistair Gentry.
A German version of the Elizabethan style flyer for Magical Realism, describing the show in German.
Flyer for the German performances of Magickal Realism.
Alistair Gentry in Elizabethan dress, including a white, starched ruff.
Magickal Realism, 2010.
Alistair Gentry in Elizabethan dress, including a white, starched ruff, and modern dress, pulling a black hood down over his eyes.
Magickal Realism, 2010.
A collage of sepia toned images showing wizards, devils, angels, and occult diagrams.
Mosaic of stills from live video mix in Magickal Realism.
A woodcut of a man in long robes, wearing a plague mask with a long beak.
Plague doctor.
A colour lithograph of two middle aged men in a graveyard at night, under a crescent moon, talking with a person they have brought back to life from a grave. The dead man is wearing his white burial clothes.
Dee and Kelley raise the dead.
A stuffed toy that resembles a stereotypical terrorist, with a black wool balaclava and staring eyes.
Elizabethan hexing “projector” poppet.
A woodcut of elderly witches meeting a black, winged devil while demons fly overheaad.
Witches meet Satan.
A sepia tone woodcut showing the spheres of heaven and earth.
Still from Magickal Realism- the spheres of creation.
A sepia toned image showing skeletons dancing and playing musical instruments while smoke swirls around them.
Still from Magickal Realism- danse macabre.
A monochrome photo of a man tied to a chair, dressed in a suit. Disembodied hands are touching him and reaching for him.
Spirit hands.

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