“A Guided Tour of The JP Morgan Chase Art Collection with Chip Barrington-Pemberwell” is a 20 minute solo lecture performance that asks the question: how is an oppressive institution like JP Morgan Chase, and by extension the identity of its employees, defined through its art collection?

On the surface, the performance is a satire of the boilerplate art history lecture. It describes in detail the art that hangs in corner offices at the largest bank in the United States. As the presenter character Barrington-Pemberwell blithely runs through his slides, the artworks and his explanations of them implicate the bank as a proponent of white supremacy and a beneficiary of colonialism. Through a satirical use of art-speak and the inclusion of problematic images from art history, the performance maps the contours of the WASP (white anglo saxon protestant) identity. Once an invisible and unbreakable identity, synonymous with power, its fragile mythologies are laid bare.