Sound–Based Performance from Appau Jnr Boayke-Yiadom at Fruitmarket 

The Fruitmarket Warehouse, part of the Fruitmarket Gallery, is a new space for art in Edinburgh that lends itself to performance. In May it will play host to multi-media performer Appau Jnr Boayke-Yiadom  who challenges  ideas that that live performance involves seeing the performer’s body.

There have been two iterations of the concept with the first being titled Before: Compliment, that was presented in London as part of the Robert Institute of Art’s Live Art Commission in March 2022, when Appau Jnr Boayke-Yiadom invited a string trio to play an improvised musical arrangement.

The musicians were hidden within a booth with only their feet visible and responded to the movement of the audience as they entered the room, creating a heightened relationship between audience and performers.

In the second iteration During: Compliment to be held at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh, Boakye-Yiadom is layering the piece, building upon the structures laid out in the first performance. A new set of Scotland-based musicians comprising double bass, piano, drums, and guitar, will play a new improvised arrangement in response to the original music recording, again mostly hidden from view of the audience.

This presentation will be accompanied by a video projection from the original performance giving the audience a chance to see this build-up of relationships and how the musicians improvise within the original structure.

On the day preceding the performance, Boakye Yiadom will be in conversation with curator of the Roberts Institute of Art, Ned McConnell, to discuss his practice and the development of Before: Compliment and During: Compliment, with music, sound and visual clips drawn from his research and previous performances.

During: Compliment is commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art as part of its Live Art Commissions and co-presented by the Roberts Institute of Art and the Fruitmarket at the Fruitmarket Warehouse, Edinburgh.

Talk: Friday 06.05.22 from  5–6.30pm Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Ned McConnell in conversation. Free. Book via Eventbrite. 

Performance: During: Compliment

Saturday 07.05.22 from 3pm–7pm. Free. Book via Eventbrite.

Irene Brown