The British-raised former advertising artist, impressed
Third Avenue Gallery-goers in 1996 with a macabre show of leather-masked
heads, tools and the like that got them thinking about restriction and claustrophobia.
He's still working Art Street's shady side with another
mixed-media exhibition that addresses his question: "If clowns make
us laugh, who makes them laugh?"
The answer may lie partially in a circus-ring event this
writer saw as a child. In a fandango involving many clowns manoeuvring an
ancient car that leaked, exploded and fell apart, a tiny clown leaped from
the roof, landed head-first in the sawdust and was whisked away by his cavorting
colleagues. Only later did we learn the little fellow had broken his neck
and died.
Bungay's show is like that.
Malcolm Parry |