first of all, last of all
The one-night-only exhibition ‘First of all, last of all’ by Sebastian Moody presented a characteristically simple and yet somehow diabolical proposal. Upon entering the long and narrow No Frills* gallery through a curtain, exhibition guests found themselves on the service-side of a Japanese whiskey bar. Inspired in part by the artist’s recent travel to Tokyo’s Golden Gai district, the ‘bar’ was stocked with sake, whiskey, plum wine, Asahi beer and sides including dried and salted plums, fresh fruit, wasabi peas, and chilli broad-beans. For the confused viewer Moody was on hand and in the role of artist-as-master-of-scenario, gently guiding service transactions along. After a given time behind the bar the viewer/participants were admitted through a roped-off pass-way to join the rest of the evening’s viewers on the patron’s side of the bar.
As a work of participatory practice, ‘First of all, last of all’ issued a succinct conceit addressing power relations in labour and leisure. Fundamentally the work functioned by providing only the bare necessity of conceptual structure into which the audience readily supplied its content through the raw material of behaviour. After the passing of a certain amount of time and alcohol, the degree of stage-management was able to devolve and participants moved fluidly towards their preferred levels of engagement both behind and in front of the bar, providing a wonderful display of what is known to BDSM taxonomy as ‘service top’ and ‘service bottom’ role play.
The risks taken in this genre of exhibition can be considerable. Whereas a sculpture or other object-based exhibition can be forgettably unsuccessful, a social practice show bears its failure directly in the experience of the viewer. As with other practices, social/participatory work
Sebastian Moody, First of all, Last of all, 2010. Detail. Photograph Paul McCann.
