Imagine my surprise when going through one of my wrestling forums I find a thread on an artistic endevour. Wrestling for me is a guilty little pleasure and I have been a fan for years, enjoying the pageantry and blatantly overblown theatrics involved in the psuedo sport, however I was very surprised to read of a Performance Artist who was taking the subect of Wrestling on with his own bare hands. As talked about in the page at the link above Anthony Schrag was going to be available to be wailed upon, stretched, slammed and pinned for one round by anyone who so wished to have a go. He set up his little tent in Margate on the seafront with the aim of allowing people to 'Sweat and Smile' and to explore the level of teamwork and trust between two people who are opponents.
Whats so interesting to me about this? Well its probably the fact that this is a great example of both old school theatre/music hall and old school wrestling. During the summer seasons in many Seaside Towns there was the Wrestling Tent where people would challenge the wrestlers for a money prize. So to do it in Margate brings a real sense of irony for me. Lets hope he didn't get too hurt, after all Wrestling... its all fake isn't it?
To see more of Anthony Schrag's work please go to this website.
Xtofer
not fake at all. and we had the broken nose to prove it....
ReplyDeleteanthony
Thanks for the reply Anthony, are you planning to take it to any more seaside towns? Think its a fantastic idea and I hope your exploration went well although it is unfortuanate you broke your nose.
ReplyDeleteChris Squire aka Xtofer