Helen Thorn is Arty Farty will make you laugh, groan and squirm. It is not, as I expected, a collection of sardonic anecdotes and derisive one-liners that turns art lovers into fuming tatters. Rather, it is an accurate expose of the world of visual, written and performing arts. Thorn’s cringing truth takes the likes of trendy high school dance teachers and glamorous university humanities professors and shows them for what they really are: pompous, daggy and ridiculous.

Through an empty picture frame, Thorn delivers an autobiography of sorts. The antics of jazz ballet teachers and the exorbitant verbosity of art gallery owners that she encountered in her youth are ‘recalled’ in a raw and deplorable truth. Thorn switches roles during her loose narrative, seemingly more comfortable with these blathering stereotypes than with herself. Each new character is revealed through the empty frame, bringing with it yet another unnerving and realistic facet of the art world.

Although Thorn is herself a great entertainer, it’s these stereotypes that steal the show. Everyone remembers the dance teacher at school whose spangled dress sense was matched only by the lurid line of lippy on her teeth. And all of us know at least one Lacan loving, latte drinking loser who is ridiculously enraptured with artspeak. Thorn has taken a mirror and shown all of this crap for what it really is. Helen Thorn is Arty Farty doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not, and that’s a rare thing in the world of art.

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