I am an artist based in Manchester working across performance and film. My current projects include Interesting Times which explores ‘Euro’ genres of 1990s electronic music and Rowland’s Leaving with artist Darren Nixon, with whom I release weekly videos stemming from our shared interest in club culture and fantasy world building. I am drawn to working in live contexts where I often use processes of reenactment and heightened drama to deconstruct the form and function of performance. Most recently I was commissioned by artist Mark Leckey and the Turner Contemporary Gallery to create my performance-installation Fluchtpunkt for an event staged at Dreamland in Margate.
I have more than ten years experience curating events which include Soundings, a listening event at Raven Row; Body as Archive, a performance exhibition staged in promenade across the Woburn Centre, London; and Interjectional Exercises, an ongoing series of provocations on speech, gesture and British Sign Language. I have collaborated and toured with composers and musicians, most recently creating the performance-installation Opera with composer Jack Sheen for the Holden Gallery in Manchester. I also perform live work by other artists across visual and sound art contexts: all documentation is at my performance archive.
From 2012 - 2022 I worked as co-director of Video Jam [‘leading audiovisual masterminds’ - Time Out], an event series dedicated to commissioning and presenting programmes of artist film with live sound and music. I co-created 50+ events around the UK and internationally, working with institutions including the British Council, the Barbican Art Centre, Whitworth Art Gallery, BBC Philharmonic and the Wellcome Collection. In 2018 Video Jam received a Manchester Culture Award.
CV
Education
2016-18 MA Fine Art, The Slade School of Fine Art, London [Distinction]
2008-11 BA Drama and English, The University of Manchester [1st class honours]
Performances & Commissions
2023 Basket 3 - SOUP, Manchester
2022 Salamagundy, curated by Mark Leckey, commissioned by Turner Contemporary - Dreamland,
Margate
2021 Performance Two, curated by Elysia Lukoszevieze - PINK Gallery, Manchester
2021 Do you think you’re better off alone? - VIRTUALLYREALITY festival [online]
2020 Do you think you’re better off alone? - The Royal Standard, Liverpool [online]
2019 Soundings - Raven Row, London
2019 Opera, curated by Zoe Watson - The Holden Gallery, Manchester
2019 Interjectional Exercises - The Portico Library, Manchester
2019 Post Paradise - Centrala, Birmingham
2019 Against the Run of Play - St Paul’s House, Deptford Market Yard, London
2019 Archway Sound Symposium, curated by Hannah Dargavel-Leafe - 5 Years Gallery, London
2018 The Hand of the Artist - The Old Telephone Exchange, London
2018 Visible Speech - The Portico Library, Manchester
2017 Progress/Regress - Crypt Gallery, London
2017 Cinema Flux - Flux Factory, New York City
2017 Authentic Tongues, curated by G Going-Lucas - Bloomsbury Theatre, London
2017 Small Press Sound Project, curated by Hannah Dargavel-Leafe - The Woburn Centre, London
2016 Emergency Festival - Z-Arts, Manchester
2016 Abeerance - Platform Southwark, London
2016 Praxis - The Advisory, London
2015 Fleck, 10 part UK and EU tour - including Splendor, Amsterdam; Mayhem, Copenhagen
2015 Flatpack, curated by Amy Lawrence - Federation House, Manchester
2015 Studio, curated by Tess Denman-Cleaver - The Northern Charter, Newcastle
2013 Fluxus - Contact Theatre, Manchester
Exhibitions
2022 Winter Special, No Bounds Radio [online]
2022 UK New Artists - Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester
2021 Microneme x Holden Gallery - Wuhan and Manchester [online]
2021 Listening project at the Holden Gallery, The Holden Gallery, Manchester [online]
2020 Visions in the Nunnery, curated by Hetain Patel - Bow Arts, London
2020 Hold On, curated by trans-collective - The Koppel Project, London
2019 The Lived Female Body in Performance Symposium - Live Art Bistro, Leeds
2019 Bankley Open Call - Bankley Gallery, Manchester
2019 Interesting Times - ilyd.nu, UK/DK [online]
2019 Time Crush - Organon, Odense
2019 neo:art prize exhibition - Bolton Museum and Art Gallery
2019 Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair - The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
2019 22nd International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair - The Tetley, Leeds
2018 London Radical Book Fair - Goldsmiths University, London
2018 In So Many Words, curated by James Moss - The Portico Library, Manchester
2017 Three - Rua Dom Carlos, Mascarenhas n.22, Lisbon
2017 Many Hares Running - Charlton Gallery, London
2016 A Pixel Or Digit?, curated by Turf Projects - Parfitt Gallery, London
2016 Tracing Paper - Paper Gallery, Manchester
2016 Diving into the Wreckage - The Old Police Station, London
2016 Science in the City Festival - Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
2016 Show & Thumb - Paramount Books, Manchester
2016 DADA 100 - The Wonder Inn, Manchester
2014 Spaces in-between - Doomed Gallery, London
2014 Parallel Vienna - Altes Zollamt, Vienna
2013 Cue: Art in Manchester, curated by James Moss - Piccadilly Place, Manchester
Screenings
2021 No-body’s room x LUX - The Room Projects, Paris
2020 Correspondance / Correspondence, curated by Sam Meech - Videographé, Montreal
2019 Fracto Film Encounter - ACUD, Berlin
2018 An assembly, curated by Jack Sheen - 3 part UK film screening including Centrala, Birmingham
2016 Kgnm Fest - Cologne
2016 Open Studios, Aldeburgh Music
2016 Colombo Art Biennale, Sri Lanka
2016 ddmmyy - Sandbar, Manchester
2015 London Short Film Festival - ICA, London
2015 FOKUS Video Fest - Copenhagen Contemporary Arts Centre
2015 Broadcast - Liverpool Small Cinema, Liverpool
2015 Elsie and Hannah premiere - Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
2014 Delia Derbyshire Day - 5 part UK film screening including The Horse Hospital, London; Norwich
Arts Centre; Cube Microplex, Bristol
2014 Quays Culture Northern Artists' Film - Salford Media City
2014 Project RE:Rite - Royal Northern College of Music
2014 Sonic Fusion Film Festival - Salford University and The University of Chicago
2015 London Short Film Festival - ICA, London
2015 Broadcast - Liverpool Small Cinema, Liverpool
2015 Snake box & Friends - Live Art Bistro, Leeds
2015 Video Jam x Jeremy Deller - Manchester Art Gallery
Curation
2021 The Winner Takes it All, with Gabriella Hirst - Montez Press Radio, New York City
2020 Spaces-in-Between, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.
2019 Soundings, Raven Row, London
2018 Body as Archive, exhibition of 18 live performances, Slade Research Centre
2018 Video Jam x Basquiat, the closing event to Basquiat: Boom for Real, the Barbican Hall
2017 Video Jam - with the Wellcome Collection and Manchester Science Festival - Manchester
Museum
2017 Video Jam, Knockdown Centre, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Show & Tell - with Ralph Pritchard - A.M, London
2016 Video Jam, FACT, Liverpool
2016 Video Jam, Whitworth Art Gallery
2015 Video Jam, Manchester Jewish Museum
2015 Video Jam x Jeremy Deller, Manchester Art Gallery
2014 SPACES - with Slip imprint - 3 part UK tour funded by Arts Council England including The Vaults,
London
2013 Video Jam, Abandon Normal Devices, Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
2010 36 exp - with Jack Howard - photography exhibition featuring work by 36 artists, Blankspace,
Manchester
Residencies
2023 Hospitalfield, Scotland (upcoming)
2023 Abingdon Studios, Blackpool, with artist Darren Nixon
2017 Flux Factory, New York City
2017 Inventory, London, with composer Jack Sheen
2016 Aldeburgh Music
2015 Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, with Sidestep collective
2015 Paper Gallery, Manchester
2013 CANVAS, Ibiza, with studio members of Islington Mill
Grants and Schemes
2021 The Exchange, an alternative learning project co-organised by Eastside Projects
2019 Jerwood Bursary
2019 a-n Artist Bursary
2018 Dean’s Fund, Slade School of Fine Art
2018 Manchester Culture Award [for Video Jam]
2017 The Clare Winsten Memorial Award, Slade School of Fine Art
2017 UCL Changemakers Grant
2017 Shortlisted for the Sekforde Trust Scholarship
2016 Brighter Sound artist development scheme hosted by musician Anna Meredith, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
2015 Creative Skillset Grant
2014 BFI and LUX Experimenta Forum
Talks, Teaching and Engagements
2023 Artist talk for third year and MA Film Studies students, Manchester School of Art
2021 Panel Contributor, “From a culture of crisis to a culture of learning“, Westminster University
2020 Workshop Leader, Contact Theatre, Manchester [online]
2019 Mentor for graduating Manchester School of Art BA Film students
2019 Masterclass Leader for Filmmaking BA Talent Lab, Manchester School of Art
2019 Judge for ‘Gallery Work’ award, Move Film Festival, Manchester School of Art
2018 Workshop Leader, Manchester Deaf Centre
2018 Judge for TENT Academy Awards Film Festival
2016 Workshop Leader, Brighter Sound, Manchester
2016 Artist talk - HOME, Manchester
2015 Workshop Leader, Blaze Festival, Burnley
2015 Workshop Leader, Blaze Festival, Accrington
2015 Career talk for Northern Film + Media - Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle
2015 Whitworth Young Contemporaries, Z-Arts, Manchester
Publications and Writing
2022 Interruptions: Sounds Published by The Holden Gallery
2022 Maternal Performance, Feminist Relations by Lena Šimić and Emily Underwood-Lee,
Palgrave MacMillan
2021 ‘hold on’ exhibition catalogue, The Koppel Project
2018 ‘Brgy. South Kensington’, exhibition catalogue published by UnBound
2018 SPP 3, Small Press Project vinyl publication, curated by Hannah Dargavel-Leafe
2015 Catalogue essay for Feint by James Moss, published by Fuse Arts Space, Bradford
2015 Script editor for ‘Fleck, Flob, Flop’ by Joe Snape
Press and Features
2021 HOAX Publication featured artist
2019 Featured artist for Ambit Issue 238
2019 ‘A Thing Unseen: An interview with Rowland Hill’, Still Life Issue 4: Ways to Disappear
2019 A5 magazine, February 2019 Issue
2019 6x6 featured artist
2018 ‘On Location: An assembly’, The Wire, Issue 418 - review of Tha-at’s right
2018 ‘Trip Report: An Assembly play Charlie Usher and Rowland Hill’, Boring like a Drill, 16/10/18
2018 ‘Ten Artists to Watch’, Elephant, 24/07/18
2018 ‘Rowland Hill’s Digital Relics and Provocation’, 5 Questions, Elephant, 09/07/18
2018 ‘Unmissable Culture of 2018’, The Guardian 02/01/18 - preview of Video Jam x Basquiat
2015 ‘Young, Creative and Manc, i-D, 30/06/15
Collections
The Portico Library, Manchester
Private collections