Red Hot Pecker Presents... ‘Jokerman’
Red Hot Pecker presents Jokerman: the culmination of years of work and a busy year for subversive local cross-disciplinary artist James Alexander McKenzie!
About Red Hot Pecker Presents... ‘Jokerman’
Red Hot Pecker presents Jokerman: a film, a book, and an art exhibition - the culmination of years of work and a busy year for subversive local cross-disciplinary artist James Alexander McKenzie.
In August, McKenzie (30) and a team of performers and musicians presented JEST FEST: a pair of pop up performances which was essentially McKenzie’s ‘poetry-play’ Jimmy Mack the Shapeshifting Jester staged across two dates, at two different sites. The first part was at The Scotsman Steps, the second at The National Monument on Calton Hill – both happened at sunrise. McKenzie worked alongside filmmaker Chris Cook to document these performances, and the resulting film will premiere, and screen regularly, at Jokerman.
Jimmy Mack the Shapeshifting Jester is an absurdist comedy in which we get to know Jimmy Mack the Jester across a string of monologues wherein he performs as a motley crew of anti-hero alter-egos performing spoken word. The play is set in an imaginary lair beneath Arthur’s Seat called ‘The Auld Reekie Echo Chamber’. Jimmy Mack cannot leave this enclosure, and he is performing for a non- existent audience: probably as a coping mechanism for his alienated condition. Although the play is absurd and comical, it is also melancholic, existential, and personal. The monologues are characterised by wry humour, parody, absurdity, self-absorption, meta-theatrical devices (self referentiality; drawing attention to its construction and artificiality), references to Edinburgh, and reflections on art.
In addition to filmmaker Cook, McKenzie has worked alongside graphic designer Maddie Lennon to realize the play as an illustrated publication published by Red Hot Pecker. Jokerman will mark the release of this book and visitors will be able to buy copies. The exhibition will present the complete framed series of the original illustrations within in the book, and these are also available for purchase.
In September, McKenzie spent three weeks in the USA with the focus of expanding his Jimmy Mack cosmos beyond Scotland to address international themes such as greed and the abuse of power, and to operate in a different cultural context and present his work to an American audience. The varied work that he made in America which encompasses painting, writing, and drawing, is exhibited in the show too and is a supplement to Jimmy Mack the Shapeshifting Jester. It builds loosely on the premise that somehow Jimmy Mack has escaped The Auld Reekie Echo Chamber and has made it to the USA. McKenzie seems to have developed an interest in iconic kitsch Americana artist Norman Rockwell across the work, although we wonder how sincere this interest is, and whether McKenzie is mocking Rockwell.
McKenzie is grateful to Peggy and Alice Marra, and Gordon McLean for their permission to use Michael Marra’s music in JEST FEST. Jokerman is generously supported by Creative Scotland. The JEST FEST performances were presented by Sett Studios and part of the Edinburgh Art Festival programme.
James Alexander McKenzie (from, and working in, Edinburgh) moves between performance art, poetry, and theatre. His work blends poetry, painting, theatre, spoken word, performance art, installation, sculpture, and stand-up comedy. He is dedicated to subversion and pushing the boundaries. In 2023, McKenzie founded Red Hot Pecker: a shapeshifting vehicle that moves between classifications as ‘arts-organisation’ and ‘theatre company’, allowing him to publish, collaborate with other artists, and put on events and exhibitions.
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