In nearly every piece that they have performed, the following scenario takes place: first a ritual is introduced (high tea or a birthday party, for example) second an array of props (mostly found objects whose repeated use gives them nearly equal status with the performers) are arranged on a small tabletop finally, the tableau is utilized as the scene disintegrates into a morass of restrained violence, punctuated by monosyllabic grunts and wordless sounds of gastric distress. Cartoon like, with their clean-shaven heads, bizarre costumes, drawn-in beards, and exaggerated motions, the Kippers portray two battling geezers who might have escaped from a Krazy Kat comic strip. In the string of untitled actions that the Kippers performed in galleries and bars in Europe and North Africa between 19, the essential character of the relationships between the two characters was formed. The viewer emerges from a Kipper Kids performance with a feeling for the relationship between ordered social rituals and conventions and the festering violence that lies beneath the facade of mannered behavior.
Through actions that at times stress the visual, the visceral, and the violent aspects of social rituals, the British team of Harry and Harry Kipper perform in a fashion that combines the zany theatrics of Spike Jones with a kind of scatological slapstick that is all their own.
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