5 August 2004
Metro (p.18)
It probably won’t attract the same level of international interest as the sporting event, but Q Arts’ Olympic celebration exhibition, Relay, will at least be held in a venue that’s been built on time. A team of specially commissioned artists will take a tangential look at the theme of competition and sport through myriad media and examine how the Olympic spirit manifests itself in everyday life.
Adele Prince, Veronique Chance and Simon Green feature people competing for space on a park bench or playing photo dominoes. The artists will also be Inventing a few outlandish events that have yet to be included in the genuine games: drinking a bath of beer and skating to the North Pole are suggested as Olympic events, alongside goldfish tennis, which sounds either cruel or unnerving, depending on whether the fish are being hit or doing the hitting.
As if to prove that not all artists are pasty recluses working away in their studios without a thought of exercise, there will be a day of Decathlon events in Derby’s Market Place on August 21 (noon to 4pm, free). They include modern art relay slalom, where punters can make their own Olympic art, join an art procession and catch a synchronised swimming performance on dry land. Which is just gymnastics, surely?