The Bruce Lacey Experience

The first preview of Turner prize winner Jeremy Deller’s portrait with fellow filmmaker Nicholas Abrahams of Bruce Lacey was a delight and an education. To call Lacey a pioneering performance artist, a musician, an inventor, a filmmaker, a costume designer, a singer, a joker – any or all of these would be going against the ethos of the documentary. He is all of these and more in his indefineable exploration through the world, involving his life, experiences, family and anything that piques his interest. Known primarily as a collaborator with anarchic comedy trailblazers The Goons in the 1950s, and his work with the Art Council in the 1970s bringing The Incredible Whatsit Machine around the country for children, his journey is so littered with incredible ideas the brief Q&A between Deller and the University of Sussex’s David Alan Mellor when opened to the floor was dominated by asking about what had missed the cut. Primarily from the unexpected contribution of Bruce Lacey himself, essentially sitting at the back and shouting: “You missed a bit!”. This is not the complete edit but it was certainly a fabulous introduction to many and a reminder to lots of the creative explorer that is Bruce Lacey.

Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome, 14 May 2012

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