Fuckart & Pimp
Encyclopedia
Fuckart & Pimp was a media hoax
conceived by Alex Chappel and David C West in April 1998 which subjected a small London
gallery to worldwide media attention and became a British front page newspaper
sensation, as well as featuring on national television
. The show was originally presented as a real event and managed to dupe many national newspapers in the UK before being revealed as a hoax.
,' and the show would 'enable both the punter and Angela to fully understand the workings of the curator
-artist
relationship.'
The first paper to make inquiries into the show was the Sport, and on April 9 an article titled 'I like them well hung in my gallery' and a photo of a topless Angela Marshall was published. The artist was quoted as saying, 'It's a way of challenging what people think is acceptable,’ and ‘I’m not doing it for money, I'm doing it for the love of art.’ The person interviewed, however, was actually Raine Lawson.
After The Sport's coverage of the show, The Independent
sent a reporter and photographer to the gallery to interview Angela Marshall. This time, a singer called 'Jules' posed as the artist. The story made the front page of the Independent on Friday 17 April, with a page seven feature about the artist and the show.
Angela Marshall arrived to the glare of lenses, 'squeezed into a nine year old's leopard print leotard (she aspires to be "in her twenties") and sporting a red rhinestone dog collar, hat, gloves, torn black stockings, topped by a blond wig and dark sunglasses,' as The Scotsman
reported.
The punters stayed away ‘possibly deterred by the ranks of camera crews and reporters gathered outside the gallery', as The Guardian
speculated. The reason for them not materialising, however, was the fact that none ever existed to begin with; thus, to curb the media hunger, a punter was invented in the form of ‘someone calling himself Mark Childs and claiming to be a buyer'.
As The Scotsman put it, 'Under a dim red light bulb, a man and two women - the second being the artist's Scottish "assistant" Jessica Konopka - thrashed about on a dirty mattress in a pathetic pantomime
copulation.' On London Tonight
, Mark could be seen leaving the gallery with lipstick smeared face and a digitally blurred painting. The reason why the painting was digitally blurred is because it bore the lipstick scrawled slogan 'Media Cunts'.
that fuelled much of the coverage was Southwark council's
letter presented in full view of the cameras, 'warning that the property appeared to be being used for sexual entertainment, and that the show's curator may have committed an offence. If the exhibition continued, the gallery would be risking prosecution. This was on the evidence of the eyewitness reports of the undercover council officer who paid five pounds to watch the act through a spy hole, and was reported by The Scotsman as saying 'she's still wearing the G-string but he's got all his kit off and they're definitely at it.'
'Nick', as he was called in the article, publicly issued a warning for obscenity
. Despite the insistence that the warning would not hinder the show continuing over the weekend, the pinnacle of the event had been reached and it did not continue.
that actually caught on with the headline 'Hoaxers play to the gallery with sex and art show,' with a sub heading 'Tom Leonard
reports on the elaborate and bizarre activities of two publicity-seekers'.
The Sunday Mirror
ran a brief article on 19 April, page 20 dennouncing the original story as a fake. 'Faking it in the name of art' gave a brief synopsis of the previous lengthier stories with the small inclusion of a quote: 'yesterday show organiser David West admitted, "It was a hoax...a charade."' The nationwide press were reluctant to follow up the original story with the truth, and potentially suffer red faces, thus, outside of the UK many were ignorant of the fact that it was a hoax.
"The Telegraph", April 18, 1998
"The Mirror", April 18, 1998
Cork, Richard "London Tonight", April 17, 1998
Leonard, Tom " Hoaxers play to the gallery with sex and art show" "The Telegraph", April 18, 1998. Accessed April 3, 2007
Watson-Smyth, Kate "A Brush with the law for artist selling sex" "The Independent", April 18, 1998. Accessed April 5, 2007
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
conceived by Alex Chappel and David C West in April 1998 which subjected a small London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
gallery to worldwide media attention and became a British front page newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
sensation, as well as featuring on national television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. The show was originally presented as a real event and managed to dupe many national newspapers in the UK before being revealed as a hoax.
Origin as a newspaper hoax
The show was conceived in written form at the beginning of April by Alex Chappel and freelance reporter David C. West. An initial press release was sent out to all the newspapers and media describing the concept show and an opening date of 17 April. It was billed as 'a stark comment on the world of contemporary artContemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
,' and the show would 'enable both the punter and Angela to fully understand the workings of the curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
-artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
relationship.'
The first paper to make inquiries into the show was the Sport, and on April 9 an article titled 'I like them well hung in my gallery' and a photo of a topless Angela Marshall was published. The artist was quoted as saying, 'It's a way of challenging what people think is acceptable,’ and ‘I’m not doing it for money, I'm doing it for the love of art.’ The person interviewed, however, was actually Raine Lawson.
After The Sport's coverage of the show, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
sent a reporter and photographer to the gallery to interview Angela Marshall. This time, a singer called 'Jules' posed as the artist. The story made the front page of the Independent on Friday 17 April, with a page seven feature about the artist and the show.
Media assault
That same day, from 9 p.m. onwards, Decima became besieged by press reporters. Everyone from the tabloids to ITN arrived, and as they were all expecting to see an art show, one was staged.Angela Marshall arrived to the glare of lenses, 'squeezed into a nine year old's leopard print leotard (she aspires to be "in her twenties") and sporting a red rhinestone dog collar, hat, gloves, torn black stockings, topped by a blond wig and dark sunglasses,' as The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
reported.
The punters stayed away ‘possibly deterred by the ranks of camera crews and reporters gathered outside the gallery', as The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
speculated. The reason for them not materialising, however, was the fact that none ever existed to begin with; thus, to curb the media hunger, a punter was invented in the form of ‘someone calling himself Mark Childs and claiming to be a buyer'.
As The Scotsman put it, 'Under a dim red light bulb, a man and two women - the second being the artist's Scottish "assistant" Jessica Konopka - thrashed about on a dirty mattress in a pathetic pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
copulation.' On London Tonight
London Tonight
London Tonight is a regional news programme broadcast on ITV London . Produced by ITN, the programme is broadcast at 6pm every weeknight, also including local sports news and local features of interest.Like all regional news programmes on ITV in England and Wales and Channel Television, it uses...
, Mark could be seen leaving the gallery with lipstick smeared face and a digitally blurred painting. The reason why the painting was digitally blurred is because it bore the lipstick scrawled slogan 'Media Cunts'.
Threatened legal action
A counter sabotageSabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
that fuelled much of the coverage was Southwark council's
London Borough of Southwark
The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...
letter presented in full view of the cameras, 'warning that the property appeared to be being used for sexual entertainment, and that the show's curator may have committed an offence. If the exhibition continued, the gallery would be risking prosecution. This was on the evidence of the eyewitness reports of the undercover council officer who paid five pounds to watch the act through a spy hole, and was reported by The Scotsman as saying 'she's still wearing the G-string but he's got all his kit off and they're definitely at it.'
'Nick', as he was called in the article, publicly issued a warning for obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
. Despite the insistence that the warning would not hinder the show continuing over the weekend, the pinnacle of the event had been reached and it did not continue.
Hoaxers play to the gallery
The following day, 18 April, nearly every paper reported on the event, some sceptical as to its authenticity; it was only The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
that actually caught on with the headline 'Hoaxers play to the gallery with sex and art show,' with a sub heading 'Tom Leonard
Tom Leonard
Tom Leonard or Thomas Leonard may refer to:*Tom Leonard *Tom Leonard , Fianna Fáil politician from Dublin, Ireland*Tom Leonard , Scottish poet*Thomas J...
reports on the elaborate and bizarre activities of two publicity-seekers'.
The Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
ran a brief article on 19 April, page 20 dennouncing the original story as a fake. 'Faking it in the name of art' gave a brief synopsis of the previous lengthier stories with the small inclusion of a quote: 'yesterday show organiser David West admitted, "It was a hoax...a charade."' The nationwide press were reluctant to follow up the original story with the truth, and potentially suffer red faces, thus, outside of the UK many were ignorant of the fact that it was a hoax.
Further References
"The Independent", April 17 & 18, 1998"The Telegraph", April 18, 1998
"The Mirror", April 18, 1998
Cork, Richard "London Tonight", April 17, 1998
Leonard, Tom " Hoaxers play to the gallery with sex and art show" "The Telegraph", April 18, 1998. Accessed April 3, 2007
Watson-Smyth, Kate "A Brush with the law for artist selling sex" "The Independent", April 18, 1998. Accessed April 5, 2007