RULES OF CRUISING
#1 Cruise with your eyes, not with your voice.
#2 You may be and most certainly will be touched.
#3 If you see people already engaged, you may watch from a distance, but it’s impolite to join them without invitation.
#4 The order which the Cruisers choose for their participants is based on eye contact and their personal desires. Do not form a queue.
#5 Don’t let the official Cruisers have all the fun. Try it by yourself with a punter of your choice.
#6 You may leave empty-handed. Try to take that pent up excitement somewhere else constructive, and with someone that you met in #5.
Press
“a mischievous living installation”
The Guardian
“Funny, illuminating, disgusting, brilliant and of questionable legality, Cruising for Art was one of the best nights out Brighton’s seen this year”
G-Scene
Originally created for 'Making a Scene at Victoria & Albert Museum in 2009, Cruising for Art has been seen over 20 times in London (BFI, VFD, Wellcome, JW3, JBW, and more), Edinburgh (Forest Fringe), Utrecht (PSi), Helsinki (Tanssin Talo), Kuopio (ANTI Festival), and beyond.
But how does it actually work???
8-12 artists are spread throughout the gallery/club/performance space. Audience members grab a bandana to wear and everyone becomes a cruiser – making eye contact, looking to connect with a stranger. Audience members cruise around the gallery hoping to make eye contact with a performer: while some performers are extravagantly dressed, others are dressed normally, encouraging everyone to make eye contact with everyone… who knows what can happen? If the audience member and Cruising artist connect, the Cruising artist brings the audience member to a private space for a 1-to-1 performance. All performances are different and created by the artist themselves – some will be funny, some provocative, some personal, some sexual, some simple, some meditative… Audience members will see as many performances as they can “get” based on their own eye contact. It’s fun, sexy, and a great new way to see interactive and intimate performance.
In 2012, Brian spoke about Cruising for Art at the Tate Modern, as part of an Axe-Grinding Workshop lead by Feminist Art Gallery (FAG) and featuring the work of Michele Clarke, Charlotte Cooper and Kay Hyatt, Ann Cvetkovich, Christa Holka, Ochi Reyes, Christina Zeidler and Nazmia Jamal.
In 2012-2013, Brian adapted Cruising for family audiences in a project called 'Schmoozing for Art' which showed at both Camden Arts Center and King's Hall.
In 2014, Brian worked with Marlborough Theatre/Pink Fringe to pilot PERFORMR, a series of one-to-one performances (inspired by Cruising for Art) available exclusively over mobile phone. PERFORMR featured the performances of Scottee, Stacy Makishi, Nomy Lamm, Steve Nice and Root Experience.
In 2016, Brian began developing Cruising with many new audiences and workshop participants, for Tanssin Talo, Helsinki (for over 15 artists), and for Cambridge Junction (in collaboration with Pink Festival).
We are currently creating the full archive for Cruising for Art including performances in Finland (ANTI Festival and Tanssin Talo), Belgium (Nuit Blanche/White Nights in Brussels), UK (London for JW3 and JBW) and more. So do check back.