Willy Little Suite
Mel Brimfield
The Willy Little Suite created for you by artist Mel Brimfield celebrates the career of fictional entertainer Willy Little and his performances at ‘The Ocean Hotel’ – the former name of Art B&B.Performance posters, show biz signage and whole walls of text evoke the spirit of theatrical seaside entertainers (real and imagined). The suite has 3 rooms – a bedroom with super comfy king size bed and specially chosen contemporary lighting; a living room with cocktail bar, pull down projector screen, HD projector and mid-century modern furniture, and en-suite bathroom with cool grey porcelain tiles, bath and rainfall shower and shiny German and Swedish fittings.
Room 2.01 - ‘The Willy Little Suite’
Mel Brimfield
‘The Willy Little Suite’ draws on a collaborative live performance made by Mel Brimfield and drag fabulist Dickie Beau.
about
The fictional Willy Little is a comedian embodying the slow decline and death of music hall in Britain from the 1950s, with a nod to John Osborne’s third-rate fictional comic Archie Rice (played on screen by Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer from 1960 directed by Tony Richardson).
A central portion of the original script for Brimfield and Beau’s live performance includes over 300 audio fragments of off-colour jokes, skits and lurid double-entendres researched from dozens of dead comedians. These are reproduced as a vast wall drawing running throughout the Willy Little Suite.
The room also features posters from fictionalised shows that could have been presented at the ‘Ocean Hotel’ (the former name of ART B&B), pretend theatrical signage and fabrics and furnishings with Willy Little’s in a variety of poses.
The room also features posters from fictionalised shows that could have been presented at the ‘Ocean Hotel’ (the former name of ART B&B), pretend theatrical signage and fabrics and furnishings with Willy Little’s in a variety of poses.
biography
Born in Oxford in 1976, now living and working in London, Mel Brimfield’s energetic collaborative work intersects live art, theatre and moving image.
Mel’s wide-ranging multimedia works draw on photography, experimental theatre, writing and painting to build alternative realities, often using fake documents and records to bring to life a fictional universe populated by Brimfield’s performances and collaborations with other artists.
Mel’s wide-ranging multimedia works draw on photography, experimental theatre, writing and painting to build alternative realities, often using fake documents and records to bring to life a fictional universe populated by Brimfield’s performances and collaborations with other artists.