Fuckart & Pimp

Fuckart & Pimp was a media hoax conceived by Alex Chappel and David C West in April 1998 which subjected a small London gallery to world-wide media attention and became a British front page newspaper sensation, as well as featuring on national television. The show was originally presented as a real event and managed to dupe many national newspapers in the UK before being revealed as a hoax.

Origin as a newspaper hoax

The show was conceived, in written form, at the beginning of April by Alex Chappel and freelance reporter, David C. West. An initial press release was sent out to all the newspapers and media describing the concept show and an opening date of 17th April. It was billed as 'a stark comment on the world of contemporary art,' and the show would 'enable both the punter and Angela to fully understand the workings of the curator-artist relationship.'

The first paper to make inquiries into the show was the Sport, and on April 9 an article titled 'I like them well hung in my gallery' ["The Sport", April 19, 1998] and a photo of a topless Angela Marshall was published. The artist was quoted as saying, 'It's a way of challenging what people think is acceptable,’ and ‘I’m not doing it for money, I'm doing it for the love of art.’ ["The Sport", April 19, 1998] The person interviewed, however, was actually Raine Lawson.

After The Sport's coverage of the show, The Independent sent a reporter and photographer to the gallery to interview Angela Marshall. This time, a singer called 'Jules' posed as the artist. The story made the front page of the Independent on Friday 17 April, [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980418/ai_n14160545 "A Brush with the law for artist selling sex"] "The Independent", April 18, 1998.] with a page seven feature about the artist and the show.

Media assault

That same day, from 9 p.m. onwards, Decima became besieged by press reporters. Everyone from the tabloids to ITN arrived, and as they were all expecting to see an art show, one was staged.Angela Marshall arrived to the glare of lenses, 'squeezed into a nine year old's leopard print leotard (she aspires to be "in her twenties") and sporting a red rhinestone dog collar, hat, gloves, torn black stockings, topped by a blond wig and dark sunglasses,' as The Scotsman reported. ["The Scotsman", April 18, 1998]

The punters stayed away ‘possibly deterred by the ranks of camera crews and reporters gathered outside the gallery', as The Guardian speculated. The reason for them not materialising, however, was the fact that none ever existed to begin with; thus, to curb the media hunger, a punter was invented in the form of ‘someone calling himself Mark Childs and claiming to be a buyer'.

As The Scotsman put it, 'Under a dim red light bulb, a man and two women - the second being the artist's Scottish "assistant" Jessica Konopka - thrashed about on a dirty mattress in a pathetic pantomime copulation.' On London Tonight, Mark could be seen leaving the gallery with lipstick smeared face and a digitally blurred painting. The reason why the painting was digitally blurred is because it bore the lipstick scrawled slogan 'Media Cunts'.

Threatened legal action

A counter sabotage that fuelled much of the coverage was Southwark council's letter presented in full view of the cameras, 'warning that the property appeared to be being used for sexual entertainment, and that the show's curator may have committed an offence. If the exhibition continued, the gallery would be risking prosecution. This was on the evidence of the eyewitness reports of the undercover council officer who paid five pounds to watch the act through a spy hole, and was reported by The Scotsman as saying 'she's still wearing the G-string but he's got all his kit off and they're definitely at it.' ["The Scotsman", April 18, 1998]

'Nick', as he was called in the article, publicly issued a warning for obscenity. Despite the insistence that the warning would not hinder the show continuing over the weekend, the pinnacle of the event had been reached and it did not continue.

Hoaxers play to the gallery

The following day, 18th April, nearly every paper reported on the event, some sceptical as to its authenticity; but it was only The Daily Telegraph that actually caught on with the headline 'Hoaxers play to the gallery with sex and art show,' with a sub heading 'Tom Leonard reports on the elaborate and bizarre activities of two publicity-seekers'.

The Sunday Mirror ran a brief article on 19th April, page 20 dennouncing the original story as a fake. 'Faking it in the name of art' gave a brief synopsis of the previous lengthier stories with the small inclusion of a quote: 'yesterday show organiser David West admitted, "It was a hoax...a charade."' [The Sunday Mirror, page 20, 19th April, 1998] The nationwide press were reluctant to follow up the original story with the truth, and potentially suffer red faces, thus, outside of the UK many were ignorant of the fact that it was a hoax.

References

Further References

"The Independent", April 17 & 18, 1998
"The Telegraph", April 18, 1998
"The Mirror", April 18, 1998
Cork, Richard "London Tonight", April 17, 1998
Leonard, Tom [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/04/18/nart18.html " Hoaxers play to the gallery with sex and art show"] "The Telegraph", April 18, 1998. Accessed April 3, 2007
Watson-Smyth, Kate [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19980418/ai_n14160545 "A Brush with the law for artist selling sex"] "The Independent", April 18, 1998. Accessed April 5, 2007