MOUTHY launches into the orifice

Academics, artists, journalists and locals came together yesterday evening at a unique pop up installation to celebrate the start of our new pre-opening season, MOUTHY: INTO THE ORIFICE.

Pictured: Guest participating in Saliva Moon live performance

Guests entered 'The Orifice', a railway arch in London Bridge that resembled the inside of a giant mouth, complete with hanging teeth, red walls and a ridged roof, and met the academic and artist collaborators behind the upcoming season of events, installations, performances and workshops.

Within The Orifice artists launched a selection of the projects that will feature in the season between now and November. Each collaboration invited the guests to participate by donating their stories, bodily fluids and creativity. Guests cast their tongues to be added to an evolving installation: Terminal Sulcus, painted porcelain models of human teeth with bacteria-infused glazes as part of Microbe Mouth, had their spit projected onto the wall through a microscope as part of Saliva Moon and gave oral histories of their kissing experiences as part of the Science of Snogging.

Pictured: A group decorate porcelain teeth with bacteria-infused glazes

The evening was introduced by a witty spoken word performance from Hayden Cohen, a writer, poet, musician and funnyman who moonlights as an Exams Officer for King's Dental Institute.

Speaking after Hayden and formally opening the MOUTHY season, Dr Daniel Glaser, Director, Science Gallery London, said 'All of the work here tonight and for the MOUTHY season has come about because of creative collisions between art and science. MOUTHY invites people to delve into the orifice, to be surprised by the hidden world within – from the dark and gross side of the mouth to the miraculous. They will be surprised by its unique and wondrous abilities and will reconsider their relationship with this portal of self-expression, leaving them, we hope, gobsmacked.'

Pictured: Hayden Cohen mid performance

UK champion loop beatboxer Scott Riseborough then took to the stage and gave a performance demonstrating the amazing aural flexibility of the mouth as he looped various sounds and rhythms to create new versions of classic pop songs using only his mouth.

Pictured: Three guests finish making moulds of their tongues for Terminal Sulcus

Photography © Richard Eaton

July 6, 2016