Inspired in part by the aesthetic categories of ‘cute’, ‘zany’, and ‘interesting’ outlined by cultural theorist Sianne Ngai, Best Of Best Of explores the objectification of a series of feelings via performance. Playing with concepts such as consumption, labour exchange and the loss of innocence, the work disobediently manipulates and exploits both performers and audience.

The severe grid of the IMMA Courtyard and the pastoral romance of the formal gardens serve as the backdrop to scenes in which cute, zany and interesting morph in and out of their darker Freudian counterparts: phobia, hysteria and obsession. Self-extrapolated neuroses fuel the action, accompanied by a soundtrack including music from French-Canadian techno artist Marie Davidson, X Factor winner James Arthur, pop-rock singer/songwriter Caroline Rose, Glasgow friends and multi-disciplinary artists [Fraser, Ormston] and chamber-musique concrète artist Wojciech Rusin. Willingly entangling the historical legacy of the military hospital and age-old beliefs in the health benefits of the great outdoors, STASIS aim to ‘spectacularise’ the site, inserting contemporary concerns into its natural context.

In dialogue with the site’s male dominated history and the medical world’s insistence on the pathologisation of femininity, Best Of Best Of seeks to offer its own view on the feminine condition as part of A Vague Anxiety.

Note: Visitors are advised that the performance will contain some nudity