Controversial live art performers Mad for Real will celebrate Chinese New Year with a soy sauce and tomato ketchup fight at the University’s Colchester Campus.

Mad for Real’s Cai Yun and JJ Xi are infamous for their previous outrageous work, such as jumping on artist Tracey Emin’s unmade bed and urinating in Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain urinal. Armed with a large supply of soy sauce and tomato ketchup, they will use strong physical and vocal gestures that evoke Tak Chi and Qi Gong, creating splurges of colour within a Perspex cube that slowly obliterates the space around them and their own bodies.

Jess Kenny, Arts and Gallery Director, explains: ‘The University is a great place for Mad for Real to perform and we hope their hilarious performance gets people thinking. Condiments have never been used to such riotous effect!’

Mad for Real’s work is about globalisation and marginalisation. Although the popular products of consumerism are instantly recognisable, there will be a gradual erosion of clarity through the process of splashing the coloured liquids, causing chaos, confusion and eventual obscurity.

The soy sauce and tomato ketchup fight will take place on Square 5 of the Colchester Campus at 1pm on Monday 26 January. Brought to the eastern region in partnership with Colchester Arts Centre, Mad for Real will also have a soy sauce and tomato ketchup fight in Castle Park at 2pm on Sunday 25 January.

This live art forms part of the University’s partnership project with firstsite, This is China, which runs from Thursday 15 January to Thursday 19 February. It includes a residency by animation artist Sun Xun, an exhibition of posters from the Cultural Revolution, screenings of Chinese short films and a critical debate programme. Organised as part of the Jiangsu-Essex Festival, This is China has been made possible by support from Essex County Council and University of Essex alumni.

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Notes to editors:
The attached photograph shows a previous soy sauce and tomato ketchup fight by Mad for Real. Their Colchester Campus fight will take place at 1pm on Monday 26 January. You are welcome to send a photographer/reporter/crew but please confirm your attendance in advance by contacting the Communications Office on telephone: 01206 872807 or e-mail: comms@essex.ac.uk