Uninstal, Inferno Quiz Show – Taku Unami

Uninstal has been devised by programmers Arika as a taster for Instal later in the year, a space for discussion, experiment and play. While some recent Arika events have been a little heavy on theory and low on thrills, Inferno Quiz Show successfully combined conceptual rigour with humour. The theme of the evening was ‘anti-understandability’ and it took in ‘dark prince of mathematics’ Kurt Gödel’s incompleteness theorem; Robert Nelson’s inspired film of found footage and guessing games Bleu Shut; and curator Barry Esson telling some rotten jokes and having a cardboard box dropped on his head.

The main draw, however, was Japanese improviser Taku Unami’s performance. In near darkness, Unami feels his way around the stage, cutting strings to bring clusters of cardboard boxes down from the ceiling until he is completely buried. We hear him fumbling around for his guitar, on which he cranks out doom metal riffs and shred solos. The performance ends with the discomfiting anti-spectacle of Unami sobbing somewhere on stage, before the lights go up and he produces a case of Laphroaig for the audience to enjoy. Slainte!

Tramway, Glasgow, Sat 15 May