I saw Matt Smith’s piece “Splintered” which he created with Meg Ullah. It impressed me with it’s simplicity and power. It’s mixture of the personal and impersonal and tempting failure. So I knew he would be a good subject for PoPA.
I returned a couple of days later. It had all disappeared, but you could tell where the flour had been, as there were patches, covered in snail trails.
Continue reading “People Of Performance Art #14: Matt Smith”
Working in the independent sector of the performing arts, Sarah is a definite jack of all trades, master of perhaps one of two, including hanging upside down and using hands as feet. Describing herself as a lazy workaholic she is a performer, maker, cake eater and film watcher in equal measure. Feeling her list of ‘things to do’ was simply not long enough in 2014 she became a Mummy and at the beginning of this year set up her own company, butlerdancetheatre. She loves sleep and would like to have more.
Kirsty Mealing does a lot of acting, and she’s artistic director of Scufflebox Theatre Co, but she’s also a performance artist, which is why I thought she would be an ideal subject for PoPA. Her performance often features existential humans in imaginary universes.
After endless tea, we found the ideal shoot locations within a few hundred yards of each other. Kirsty’s local knowledge led us to exactly what we were looking for.
First, a portrait.
Continue reading “People Of Performance Art #13: Kirsty Mealing”
Scarlett Turner is a dance artist and anarchist, her work explores sexual rebellion and other cool subject matter. Joey Mottershead is a performance artist who specialises in making people feel empty and happy. They live in a house together, they hope to someday leave.
Thanks to Silver Vine Arts for letting us have access to the space at The Queen of Bradgate, Leicester.
Continue reading “Dance: Scarlett Elizabeth Turner & Joey Mottershead”
Ollie Smith is an artist, performer and theatre-maker, who makes contemporary performance work, on his own, and sometimes with others.
With Olwen Davies he’s one half of the creative partnership of LaPelle’s Factory.
Continue reading “People Of Performance Art #12: Ollie Smith”
Amongst Ian’s many anxieties is the sneaking suspicion that his face is never quite doing what it should be when he’s being photographed. He has self-confessed loves of both the floor and of being upside down. Having reached 32 and managed to maintain a career in dance he’s currently taking some time to reassess what he wants to do with his body before bits of it start to refuse to work – and while he figures it out he’s happy to indulge himself in the thing that he secretly suspects he’s going to be doing for the rest of his life.
Tetrad is an artist collective, who put on Us & Them, every so often at Attenborough Arts in Leicester, and I am lucky enough to photograph it. Us & Them can include performance art, dance, live art, spoken word, and a few other things. There is also a Tetralude, where the collective & performers improvise on a theme.
The Tetrad Collective:
Continue reading “People Of Performance Art #11: Sophie Swoffer”
Yu He Lin & Mauro Sacchi were studying at De Montfort University, Leicester when I managed to photograph them. I had seen them dance in a piece created by Yu He Lin, which was part improvised, but fluidly part of the piece. I knew I had to photograph them, seeing the way they both synchronised their creative movement, with playfulness and emotion.
They have both returned home now to Taiwan and Italy. There was something special happening while they were in the UK, and I’m privileged to attempt to capture it.
Dan Nicholas is better known as a comedian, but he also has a bit of performance art in his blood. He’s a theatre maker/ writer/ creative producer as well as a member of the arts collective Tetrad.
One thing you notice about Dan, is, he likes to explore. Finding new ways to present comedy, and mixing his various mediums. That’s why I thought Dan would make an interesting subject for PoPA
Continue reading “People Of Performance Art #10: Dan Nicholas”
