Preview: House Gymnastics Exhibition - Brahm Gallery

It's seriously mad, it's quite habit-forming, but is it art?

House Gymnastics is a fine blend of yoga, breakdancing, climbing and gymnastics, to be perfected in your own home before par-taking in exchanges, and gallery and internet exhibitions. This hot new fad all began with Harrison & Ford's attempts to put up a bedroom blind, and is essentially the result of the existential ennui of domestic life. The two artists, along with daring and just plain stupid collaborators, have been perfecting positions (that have to be held for some three seconds) that break the banality of our relationship with the home environment. Thrill as you see for the first time the treacherous ravine of your hallway, holding on with merely one hand gripped against the inevitable fall (or rescue)! Revel in the insight caused by seeing your poxy bedroom from above! Meditate upon those awkward corners where you thought nothing really ever went on! And more, more, more defiance of gravity, incredulous stupidity and incredible agility.

But be warned: you should not try this at home without accepting the huge responsibilities involved. The prior use of drugs or alcohol is evidently ill-advised; this is not a post-pub sport, stick to your Gameboy or tiddlywinks! Also be prepared for the kind of injuries that Harrison & Ford have endured for the sake of their art (these are detailed on the website www.housegymnastics.com and are enough to throw sickies for the best part of a year). Then there is that netherworld where your entire life will revolve around HG, taking over even from your love life and family. At this stage you may well become addicted to the adrenaline rush and sense of achievement allowed by your hobby. The artists recommend, in extreme cases of over-attachment, that you take up knitting or stamp collecting. At the current time no HG rehabs exist, so it is advisable to keep in touch with your more sensible friends and family throughout. They will know the difference between when things are getting just plain silly and when you are on the road to Damascus (though what happens when you get there, God only knows).

The exhibition includes examples of such legendary positions as: the Elevated Carpet Crab (relatively safe in terms of lack of height, but deceptively destructive when it comes to skin burns and muscle strains), the vertigo-inducing Banister Snake (be sure to check the hand rail first) and the One Handed Starfish (have carbuncles ever looked this fine?). Perhaps art's impact on society has never been this strong since the introduction of the Lottery (social realism taken to a quite ridiculous extreme). You can be assured that Harrison & Ford will induce you to feats that have appeared futile (or at least preposterous) since childhood. And after all, isn't naiveté and innocent fun the enemy of modem art?

(Richard Jevons, Leeds Guide, May 2003)