We all know that Ragnar Kjartansson likes to provoke. And when called upon to say a few words at the opening of his terrific Barbican show (until 4 September) the Icelandic artist certainly caused a few sharp intakes of breath when he jokily added the newly appointed Prime Minister Theresa May to his list of thank-you’s. Quickly realising that most of the audience still found this too painful a subject to be a laughing matter, the perpetually genial artist then announced that he was going to perform a British song written by “some lads in Manchester” (delivered in a very convincing Mancunian accent.)
The artist-musician then proceeded to sing (a capella, accompanied only by his own beatboxing) the inimitable lyrics of Art for Art’s Sake by Stockport-born 1970s band 10cc. This carried considerable resonance for the somewhat mature art world audience—which included the artist’s US gallerists Lawrence Luring and Roland Augustine—all of whom enthusiastically joined in the chorus: “Art for art’s sake, Money for God’s sake!”
Especially enjoying the singalong was the artist’s 80-year-old mother Guðrún Ásmundsdóttir who, when she left to leave after the dinner, also led her fellow diners in a spirited rendition of Vera Lynn’s wartime classic We'll Meet Again. Earlier on this redoubtable former singer and actress had confided that for the more recent iterations of Kjartansson’s ongoing video series Me and My Mother, in which she repeatedly spits in the face of her son, she was assisted in performing this transgressive and upsetting act by thinking of the bankers who had brought about her country’s recent financial crisis. Perhaps a touch of cathartic spitting might also help to ease the UK’s post-referendum trauma: watch out Theresa May…
