During the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this yer Fierce had a page feature in the inaugural Forest Fringe Zine. Dirty Cash!!! was a competition we ran as part of the Forest Fringe programme where we invited the public to send in the the filthiest suggestions of how to spend £250 – an expansion of the idea that there is no such thing as clean money.

Celebrity filth judges Laura Solon and Richard Dedomenici helped us sort the filth from the chaff and deem one idea the worthiest (filthiest) recipient of the cash.

The entries ranged from pure sleaze and sexual deviancy to more political statements on corruption.

The top three were:

1) Jasmine Loveys (below) – winner
2) Andrzej Lukowski – ‘Autopeodophilia’ – a study on the ethics of child pornography – what happens if you masturbate over a picture of yourself as a child?
3) Lucy Ellinson – ‘Anti-filth’ – finding the filthiest, grimiest unperpasses and spaces in a city and writing ‘reverse graffittti’ statements about the ConDem coalition government in bleach and industrial cleaning products.

So the winner is…

So. . . here is the filthy way that I would spend 250 big ones:

Jasmine’s dirty day. . .

11.30am
I would begin with a bit of light cosmetic surgery and have a hair transplant on my face. Specifically, I would have hair transplanted just above the mouth to form a moustache. I would like it to be quite a bushy one but money doesn’t go far. I visit a back- street transplantists and pay £200 for a thin moustache.

3pm
Armed with new facial hair, it’s time for a little jog and the tache reveal. Having purchased a pair of tiny, shiny red shorts from a charity shop for the bargain price of £2.50, I take all my clothes off, apart from the shorts, and run.

5pm
Very sweaty from the jogathon, I pop in to the local co-op for a tin of UHT squirty cream. Pay £2 to the cashier and leave.

5.10pm
Having left the co-op, I stop to slather my sweaty torso in cream, paying particular attention to the nipples. I am thinking how much the girls will love this.

6pm
It’s never to early for a titty bar so I head to ‘wild catz’ for a little of the action. I order a reef and watch the girls on the pole, seductively fingering the cream from my chest into my mouth.

Midnight
Somehow hours have passed and I’m still at the titty bar. By now the cream has really festered and something is smelling pretty funky. I head home.

1am
I find some cold chips in the kitchen from the night before. I eat them before climbing into my new leopard print sheets (£12 from debenhams).

What a marvelous day!

There’s no such thing as clean money.

Help Fierce Festival discover the filthiest way to spend 250 quid.

For the full page click here!

Send your ideas to dirtycash{at}wearefierce.org

Best filth gets the cash to spend (on filth)

The winner will be selected by a specialist panel of celebrity filth experts and announced at a sleazy ceremony at:
Forest Fringe, Bristo Place, Edinburgh at 11.59pm on Saturday 21st August 2010.

Fierce’s Dirty Cash!!! is Fierce’s contribution to the inaugural Forest Fringe Zine. Our page features alongside contributions from a number of artists including Tim Etchells, Action Hero, Third Angel and Ant Hampton. For more information about Forest Fringe please visit www.forestfringe.co.uk

The next shot of Fierce is fast approaching. Fierce Interrobang 1: Regeneration opens on Thursday this week. It lasts just three days…fleeting as summer itself.

For the full programme click here or visit www.warwickartscentre.co.uk.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Fierce has long been a member of the Live Art UK network and had the opportunity recently to talk about our work alongside our respected peers in ‘In Time: A Collection of Live Art Case Studies’.

Our Executive Producer, Kevin Isaacs talks about our work and Audiences. Kevin talks eloquently around the following subjects: challenges of engagement; artist/audience relationships; the media; site – citing works such as ‘The Great Swallow’ by Benjamin Verdonck and ‘Name in Lights’ by Joshua Sofaer; the importance of education programmes; partnerships; and venue programmes.

Kevin concludes with a statement which I think we all agree with about why we choose to work within the sector:

“Finally, it’s our job as curators, marketers, producers and venue managers to inspire our audiences, and we wouldn’t be working in the field of Live Art if it wasn’t fun, would we? Thinking a bit left-field, being brave and a bit risky, is what makes the job fun, and seeing the audience getting a great experience that they’ll remember for many a year has to be the perfect payback.”

In Time also features case studies from Lyn Gardner, Sonia Dyer, Artsadmin, Live Art Development Agency, The Bluecoat, New Work Network, Colchester Arts Centre, Chapter Arts Centre and Arnolfini. It is a definite ‘must read’ for all those interested in Live Art or the work of organisations like us.

For more information about In Time click here or visit www.liveartuk.org.

A look back at what happened on Thursday 15th 3pm…Fierce Start Party @AE Harris…

What is the Fierce Start Party? Hear Laura talk about it below:

The afternoon and evening celebrated the practice of the Fierce Festival Caravan of Artists 2010 – 2011, including live performances, interventions, and spaces to allow us to pick your brains. We had audiovisual delights from biTjAM then later some party music from mama feel good!

EXYZT @AE Harris for the Fierce Start Party

We had live blogging from this is tomorrow and photography by Briony Campbell. Here is some of Kira O’Reilly’s performance from the afternoon captured by James Smith from this is tomorrow:

Kira O’Reilly from this is tomorrow on Vimeo.

Everyone was invited – so thanks to all those who came along and those who stayed until the very end! We hope you picked up a Fierce Loyalty Card (it’s not too late to get one) and your fortune cookie.

Following the Fierce Start Party Lyn Gardner talked about the Fierce Festival Caravan of Artists 2010 – 2011 and our new approach to the festival model – a little snippet below:

Lots of festivals simply programme from the work that is available,” Morrison explains. “We’ve not gone shopping for artists who will just turn up on the night. We’ve looked for people whose work we really like, but who are prepared to have an ongoing and in-depth 10-month engagement with us and with local people. By the time Fierce happens, we’ll all know each other really well.” Even the timing – late February – is a break with the arts festival summer tradition. Was that dictated by the current May to September logjam? “It’s because the light is better,” says McDermott. “It makes you look at things differently – it makes you look twice.”

For the full article click here.

We hope to see you all very soon at Fierce Interrobang 1: Regeneration (24th – 26th June).

Were you at the Fierce Start Party? If so let’s hear your impressions of the event…