Mad For Real

I remember sitting in the Bell Inn when a friend and I talked for near on three wine-fuelled hours about creating a kleptomania competition. This would involve a time limit and scoring system: points earned for unusual things you could take from public places. So 5 points for a traffic cone, 300 points for the M from a Macdonald's sign, 1000 points for a Macdonald's worker and so on.

Most of us don't carry these ideas out. We wake up with the hangover the next day and realise that actually it wasn't such a practical idea and besides what would you do with 67 traffic cones?

Not JJ Xi and Cai Yuan. You can imagine their conversation...

"Bloody art establishment. Rubbish work"

"We could do much better"

"So why don't we do something together?

"Such as?"

"Why don't we run naked across Westminster Bridge with a bear?"

"Hey what about pouring ketchup on ourselves too?"

"Nice".

And that's, sort of, the way it all happened.  Born in the People's Republic of China, they came to Britain to train at the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths College.  While drinking in a pub one day they talked about how they were fed up with the work of the YBA which they found boring and unadventurous. They decided to maximise their ideas and work together forming Mad For Real.

Since then their performances and intervention work have caused controversy. They are best known for jumping on Tracey Emin's unmade bed when she was short listed for the Turner Prize in 1999. They claimed they liked the work so much they wanted to `interact' with it and so jumped up and down on the bed until they were eventually dragged off by security guards. They have also urinated on Duchamp's urinal piece in the Tate Modern and caused general mayhem by running through London naked.

All this anarchy is not without purpose. They hope to challenge the notions of contemporary art and bring their work to an audience who might never venture into the Saatchi gallery. Their latest video installation `Monkey King' which first shown a couple of weeks ago, sees them flying through the British Museum, first as flies then dressed as monkey warriors. I didn't have a clue what was going on but perhaps that's the point. Just to see two ridiculous figures prancing through the hallowed sanctuary of the British museum was enough. I doubt the ancient Chinese sculptures have ever had two monkey's whisper in their ear. They were having fun and brought spirit and life to a place that can often be austere and brooding. I met JJ and Cai shortly after the screening of their film.

 

Why did you decide to do performance work rather than other art forms?

"This is the area we were excited about. We always focus on the present and look towards the future."

Explain your new film Monkey King to me...

"Monkey King relates to our works which have been involved in museums and galleries. The film reveals our spirit. It's a bit different from our previous work as the Museum commissioned it. We're re-enacting an ancient Chinese legend. We move through the galleries of ancient sculpture symbolically creating havoc on the road to enlightenment."
 

How does that fit in with your previous work?

"When we run through the streets for a performance we're bringing the institutionalised space to a wider audience...to expand the viewership of contemporary art.Children love our work, they clap and they say `that's fantastic!' Grannies say "look those are the guys that jumped on Tracey Emin's bed - fascinating what those artists are getting up to these days". Unlike traditional art which people see in the `white box' context of a gallery and think "I could hang that in my sitting room". We're changing these traditional perceptions of art. For us `beautiful' paintings in galleries are too limited and not like life basically."

Aren't you scared of alienating the art community that you're a part of?

"It's the road we started along and we continue along this path. We believe that this is right way and we will not change what we our doing to suit others tastes. Loads of artists worry about space and money and so on. We're an example that you can just go out there and do it. Jumping on a bed, pissing in the Tate Modern -they should do the same thing!"

Do you think artists are scared to do this?

"They don't have the guts! They have the idea but don't have the guts to do it. So instead they moan about funding and so on. They will never achieve anything. It's a shame really."

Do you tell people about your performances before you do them?

"We want our work to be approached in a totally different way - we don't want to set it up. We want it to be totally unexpected. Suddenly jumping in front of your face and so you have a reaction rather than being psychologically prepared to go as you would do going to a conventional exhibition. We create a different audience. The audience are involved directly in our work. We document people's reactions on video and in photographs and they form part of our work."

Have you been arrested?

"We have been arrested several times. Four years ago we sat in the police cell for 5 hours and then they realised we were creating a work of art and released us. When we did a performance in the Royal Academy, the security guards said they had called the police. But police realised it was us and didn't even bother turning up. They do listen. Well, sometimes but not always!"

What different reactions do you get from your audience?

"Chinese people find humour in our work. In the West people don't find it funny. It's a cultural difference. When we were doing the ketchup piece in the National Gallery of Prague in the Czech, the locals shouted to get the police and were quite violent. Even in England reactions vary.  In Liverpool, they really loved our work. In London everyone is used to bizarre things going on and didn't bat an eyelid."

www.madforreal.com

How many great ideas are formed over a few drinks in your local pub?