EVER tried cooking a Vicky sponge in China?

It's not as easy as you might think - just ask artist Holly Darton.

"They have steam ovens over there," she tells me, "which tends to make your traditional Victoria Sponge rather super flat."

Along with Jenny Hunt, for the last four years Holly has been touring the country, and further afield, serving up their own unique style of performance art through the Hunt and Darton Cafe.

First commissioned by Live Art Collective East for the Cultural Olympiad, the cafe started its life as a pop-up in Cambridge City Centre, before taking a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Using the running of a cafe as the foundation of exploring lots of different ways to make artistic performances, the pair recruited several of their friends including Scottee, Lucy Hutson and Vicki Weitz to come along and perform there as well.

"That was our longest stint at the time," she adds. "Four weeks in all but because of the intensity of Edinburgh it felt a lot longer.

"Then we thought about doing it full time, in Clapton, South London. We ran it for six months in all and we learnt loads about setting up a business as well as getting ourselves embedded in the community."

As well as getting involved with local groups, and at one stage even local politics, Holly says it was the very permanency of the Clapton cafe that took away the artistic charm of the project.

"We realised the cafe was not for a permanent place," she says. "When we first started we liked the idea of going into different towns and cities, arriving in areas which might not be used to this kind of art.

"In the end we visited about 14 towns and cities (including Colchester, at the Firstsite art gallery and the Lakeside Theatre at Essex University).

"China was part of a British Council showcase of live art and we ended up going to three cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The idea was to do a classic British Afternoon Tea but with our twist but that did mean having to find places that had a kitchen attached to them.

"As well as the flat Victoria Sponges, we also served Tunnocks Tea Cakes and battenbergs, and like the cafe back home in the UK what we really enjoyed about it was engaging with different communities."

Jenny and Holly met while studying at Central Saint Martins in 2003 and have been working together for eight years.

Approaching live art from a fine art background, they work across media with a sculptural approach to performance, often creating installations in which they perform.

Holly says: “When we first started working together one of our biggest questions was why our audience was over there and we were over here.

“We began asking ourselves how we could close that gap and we’ve doing it ever since.”

Consistently reassessing their relationship with their audience, embracing awkward moments, risk taking and constantly trying to close that gap between performer and viewer, their work has been described as deadpan and absurd, often collapsing into humour.

Although the cafe project is taking a temporary rest, their fascination with community, and how live art can be developed through that, continues with two new pieces of work, Radio Local and Jumble Sale.

While Radio Local got a brief outing at the Colchester Arts Centre at the end of last year, this weekend sees the pair's unique Jumble Sale coming to town.

"The idea," Holly begins, "as with all our shows, is to make art for people who might not necessarily be interested in art. It's a little like the cafe in that we're taking a pre-existing format and playing around with it, and much like the cafe if someone just wants to jumble, they can."

Although with the fun and games Hunt and Darton have got planned, why would you just jumble!

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the arts centre Jumble Sale this weekend is that Holly and Jenny will be curating it.

"We'll be curating some of it," Holly smiles. "Just by taking the different items and placing it in that kind of context I think already shifts the idea of a Jumble Sale away from its original purpose.

"As well as curating the jumble, we're going to offer a personal shopping experience, have a choreographed catwalk show with the jumble and play lots of games where people can win big prizes. We haven't worked it all out just yet but one of them will definitely be putting on as many clothes as you can when you hear the siren. We are also delighted that we're going to be helped out yet again by such performers as Scottee, Figs in Wigs and Stacy Makishi."

As well as a chance to off load all those unwanted Christmas presents or declutter the house to make way for the new stuff, the Jumble Sale will also be raising money for the arts centre's chair appeal.

All contributions are welcome this week to drop off or you can call the arts centre on 01206 500900 or 07814 695598, and they will collect it.

"Most of our work requires participation," Holly adds, "and so to make that a little easier we take a format that people are comfortable and familiar with like the jumble sale."

Or the subject of their other current project, a local radio show.

"The idea is to run a radio show for the people by the people," Holly tells me. "Rather than being based in the studio we'll be outside in a specific location. The tagline is Radio Local - so local you can smell it! The idea is we'll be reacting to the crowd that turns-up but we'll also be asking them to DJ and to help us make jingles and impromptu news reports."

Hunt and Darton: Jumble Sale

Colchester Arts Centre,

Church Street, Colchester.

Saturday, January 7. From 12pm.

Admission Free. 01206 500900.

www.colchesterartscentre.com