Ivan's Dogs 'We Provide the Smiles'

4th June, 2006
Nottingham, UK

Reactors approach to blurring the lines between the audience and performer sunk to new heights when creating the closing event for Sideshow; the fringe festival created to co-inside with the Nottingham leg of British Art Show 6.

A fictional art collective from Derry, Northern Ireland was created as a front to conceal Reactor's involvement in Sideshow. Given the name Ivan's Dogs, this group supposedly always hide their identities and involved the audience in physical, possibly dangerous events that were termed 'occasions'. Billed as their first event outside of Ireland, 'We Provide The Smiles' was developed through intensive surveying and scouring of the Nottinghamshire landscape.

The identity and history of Ivan's Dogs was developed through extensive research which included a visit to Northern Ireland in order to falsify documentation of previous 'occasions'. The aim was to solidify and make believable the persona of Ivan's Dogs whilst still maintaining Reactor's core interest in keeping and increasing audience participation in the work.

www.ivansdogs.com

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Ivan's
• Dogs
• 'We
• Provide
• the
• Smiles'
• Reactor
• art
• audience
• performance
• northern
• Ireland
• rural
• situation
• situationalist
• interactive
• cars
• dangerous