Public Allergies is a radio drama collaboratively written by artists Heman Chong and Anthony Marcellini.
The work centres on a fictional artist, Simon Tam, a character who has been invited to create a public art project in Broadway Market, London. He proposes a performance situating one hundred riot policemen along Broadway Market. The execution of the piece causes a reaction from the public resulting in a full-scale riot.
Enacted in two acts, the piece gives two perspectives on Tam’s work; oscillating between the media’s coverage on the outcome of his performance, and an interview between Tam and a fictional young curator, Antonia Eda. As the radio drama unfolds, we witness a journey into questioning the motivations and consequences of public art production that is geared to engage on highly populist levels.
Voices:
Simon Tam … Heman Chong
Antonia Eda … Fatos Üstek
News Anchor … Verity Haines
Fiona Bolton … Zia Trench
Public Allergies is produced by Visionary Trading Project with Resonance 104.4 FM.
Sound recording and editing by Stephen Stamper.
Visionary Trading Project brings together new commissions, events and interventions, addressing the socio-economic changes that the Broadway Market area of East London has experienced in the last decade. Proposing imaginative narratives and alternative models of trade and exchange, the projects ascribe fictional elements to the real stories and structures of the area. Borrowing content and imagery from myths, fables and popular culture and inscribing it into the existing ‘idylls’ of the Saturday Market, the artists breach common cultural conventions and offer uncanny visions of social transaction.