The Grumpy Marx Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge // 2005
The Process Room // Irish Museum of Modern Art
15,028 Visits in a Day
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
The Final Tally
Shaky Hands: Wankers-Cramp Art-Elbow Challenge
The Final Tally
Stand-in Graphic for Badly Documented Signage
Grumpy Marx’s record breaking performance when he broke the 15,000 Phantom Visitor Barrier to become the IMMA’s most visited visitor in a day // 16th Oct 2005
To celebrate the closing of my exhibition in the Process Room at The Irish Museum of Modern Art, I decided to do a performance. It would act as a symbol of my gratitude to the institution for putting me up in such style. I also wanted to give them a hand and increase their visitor numbers. It all helps when you’re looking for the Grants. So I donned my reluctant work man’s uniform and transformed myself into Grumpy Marx. I set myself up inside the main entrance door, beside the infra-red clicker that counts visitors attendances. I started clocking up numbers in a fairly reckless manner with uneconomical but enthusiastic phantom handshakes. It’s to be expected – the giddiness of going on a journey into the unknown. I cottoned on to my extravagant waste of potential energy and refocused on the reason why I was there, to clock up numbers and left the flamboyance for another day. I phased in and out of various experimental styles of breaking the clicker light barrier. I was dozy day dreaming at one stage and a gallery worker commented on my unconscious wankers grip and thrust, which took me aback at first, but then I got around to thinking that it added an extra special something to my wankers cramp-art elbow endeavours.