Where has that East London edge gone? Gawd, this art scene is so damn polite and conservative now, what little of it there still is is mostly under the thumb of a tedious middle class by-the-book set of curators who don’t really like to challenge or indeed to be challenged and right now, more than ever we need Kunsty throwing things around, the whole gutless thing need a pie in the face. A new edition print and art cushion by artist Paul Sakoilsky was launched rather eventfully last weekend, it did get messy, it was brief outburst of fun and the print is rather good. Produced by Swedish Vanessa, the piece is called Seer, Kunst Clown. The print was launched in style with birthday cake to eat and cake to throw in a slightly riotous back garden in East London. Now we’re not saying a pie in the face solves any of East London’s problems in terms of (the dying) art scene, but hey, “Kunsty is the art world’s drunken saint, the last fool laughing as the whole damn thing goes up in flames”

“Kunst the Clown, paint-smeared, grinning like a lunatic who’s seen the void and decided it’s hilarious. A jester for the end times, stumbling out of some grotesque fever dream and into Budapest, 2007. He raged, he howled, he mocked the whole damn circus. Not a man, not a costume, something more. A walking satire, a Molotov cocktail lobbed at the art world’s glass house. And then paint. Thick, savage, slapped over photographs of the chaos like a crime scene reworked by a lunatic. Overpainted prints, caught between documentation and obliteration. The archive turned rabid. Kunst is no ordinary clown. He’s the joke that won’t die, the last laugh that echoes long after the room is empty. He laughs at power, and power twitches. Paul Sakoilsky’s twisted alter ego, a seer, a lunatic, a prophet in smeared makeup—lurks at the edge of reason, waiting for the next punchline.

Kunst the Clown, Kunst Clown, ‘Kunsty’ shambled into existence at Sakoilsky’s Liget Galeria show in Budapest, 2007. Since then, he’s rampaged across galleries, museums, festivals, and art fairs, leaving a trail of chaos and unholy laughter. He rants, he philosophises, he invites the audience to dismantle him. And they do, armed with pies, paint, and whatever else is at hand, they baptise him in absurdity. It’s not just performance; it’s a ritual, an orgy of destruction and renewal. Kunsty is the art world’s drunken saint, the last fool laughing as the whole damn thing goes up in flames.”

The artworks are available to purchase online from swedishvanessa.com/shop

Here’s another #43SecondFilm…

“Paul Sakoilsky (b. 1964, UK) was brought up in England and Southeast Asia. His artistic practise ranges from performance, painting, poetry and philosophy to curation, making use of traditional as well as digital media. He was one “of the instigators of East London’s earlier and edgier art scene”, as a curator of live and interdisciplinary art at 30 Underwood St Gallery (Shoreditch) 1994-2002, where he also had his studio. In 1997 he co-curated the Austrian Viennese Actionist, Hermann Nitsch’s first U.K. exhibition, which led to a 26 year relationship with the artist and his work, on whom he has written extensively, going on to perform in many of Nitsch’s large-scale performances. He was a co-founder of the RED Gallery in Shoreditch as artist/curator in residence (2009-2012). His work has been exhibited, performed, and published internationally. Collections: British Council, Tate Britain and internationally in private collections”.

Previously on these these Organ pages…

ORGAN THING: Paul Renner and Paul Sakoilsky – This is The Gate of Heaven at Gallery 46, Whitechapel, East London, now that was an opening…

ORGAN THING: Pure has nothing to do with clean, Paul Sakoilsky, Cedric Christie and who cares about about the temperament of artists disagreeing with artists? The start of yet another art show…

ORGAN THING: Paul Sakoilsky, Paul Simonon and some other names we shouldn’t really name at The Show With No Names, an art show in Hackney, these things are important…

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