In Spite of Myself

Overview

All art is arguably an exploration of the artist’s ego, but performance artist Nicola Gunn seems determined to take this to a new level with her Melbourne Festival show, In Spite of Myself.

It is framed as a show within an exhibition. The exhibition is a fictional retrospective about Gunn herself, entitled Exercises in Hopelessness: Nicola Gunn (1979 – present). The audience are free to peruse it as if at a gallery for an hour or so before the performance begins, setting the stage for a surreal self-referential parody of the arts world.

Gunn, a veteran of the festival circuit, won a Best Experimental Performance Award at the 2012 Melbourne Fringe Festival for Hello my name is…, a show which left a slew of reviewers saying they couldn’t really describe what it was other than amazing. Featuring video art, live performance, a parody lecture and accompanied by an arts forum picnic on October 12, In Spite of Myself looks set to garner a similar response.