protoPLAY

London, UK, January 2010

Simply put, the work is my curiosity about how the world works, specifically how we work, and in a sense, how we make the world. For one thing I’m very interested in the brain and language, and the way it determines us. The sense that the way we see the world is determined by the WAY we see the world.

This translucent relationship between the universe and our ideas about the universe has a mystifying right-in-front-of-ones-nose quality that seems almost impossible to see and grasp – and yet in some sense also seems to frame the scope and limits of what we can possibly know and think as human beings. To feel this, to hold it and to be even dimly aware of these edges can make the hairs stand up on the back of ones neck. It seems to opens up a field of what is possible, on a scale unimaginable, and yet made of the very stuff that is always already all around one.

For me, the act of perception, and so, the world which is all around us, is already filled with wonder. And in a sense my dream would be to find ways point to that which is always already right in front of one, have it open up as the most subtle, ridiculous or extravagant poetry, the most intriguing philosophy, as a concert, a sculpture and a theory, an art installation or as a performance – that transported you to a place of wonderment or humour – so that you or I wouldn’t need to go to a gallery or a performance festival, or that the world – the world right in front of us, and reflection on the way we perceive it, can help answer our deepest questions, help us listen to our hearts, make one stronger, better, and make one less tired, less vulnerable, and be a constant source of wonderment and humour.
(Well that’s a dream, a reference point.)

An example of such a thing that is always already around us is language, or an object, or a subject, and indeed a lot of my past work (e.g. ‘Banana’, ‘The Fundamental’, ‘Christmas Christmas’) has concerned language, or perhaps rather, concerned misusing language and mistreating its relationship to objects and the world at large – One of the things that’s interesting to me about language is that its rules seem open to misuse. One of my current projects, ‘Banana Political Party’, (which I’m preparing in time for the UK General election) looks at the strange and incongruous relationship between language as information and the musicality and performativity of political rhetoric. Another branch of my work has sought to interrogate the structure of the spectacle, for example in another current project-in-development, ‘2(two)’ (2009-onwards), the audience views the work with their heads coming up through heads in the floor, where there spectatorship becomes also their submission and their participation as objects in the work.

I work across a range of disciplines, actively absorbing ideas and influences from the history and philosophy of science, from philosophy, sociology, mathematics, language, as well as the comedy and tragedy of mass-culture. The outcomes of my work include performance, installation, music, sound, writing, video and mathematics. As a solo artist specialised I have been making work internationally since 2004. Including Gwang-Ju Biennial in South Korea, Made Up at A Foundation, Liverpool Biennial, Diverse Universe in Estonia, Latvia, Germany and France, and previously at KEAF in 2008.

I am also very active in collaboration and production. My artistic practice has two complimentary parts, solo work and group work, which mutually feed off of and inform one another. For example, I am a founder member and curator of protoPLAY collective, who have created group projects and residencies exploring collaboration and shared-experience. I have also worked to develop links with an international performance collective called Non Grata, and work with them about twice a year. In 2007 I organised ‘Survival’ a ‘DIY4 – artist development projects by artists for artists’. I also work on Testing Grounds, a professional development platform across England commissioning artists to make new works, aiming to be supportive of artistic risk.

I currently live and work in London, UK.

EDUCATION

2003 – 2006 Music and Visual Art BA, Brighton University, UK.

SELECTED PERFORMANCES
2011 ‘Big Performance’ for European Capital of Culture, Tallinn.
05 2009 Nietzsche, Death of God, Morality and self creation, Berlin.
05 2009 Cadavre Equis, Union of Performance, Riga, Latvia.
05 2009 Banana (8), Union of Performance, Riga, Latvia.
10 2008 Banana, Made Up Weekend, Liverpool Biennale.
10 2008 We’ve Won, Concrete and Glass, London.
07 2008 Inconsistencies, Logical, Solo show, The Basement, Brighton.
07 2008 Mass Banana, Watts Fest, Devon, England.
07 2008 Boundaries (1), Global Container, Tallinn, Estonia.
07 2008 Banana One Night Stands, Chelsea MA Curating Course, Wimbledon College of Art, London.
05 2008 Collaborative Performances with Non Grata, Diverse Universe 4, Estonia.
04 2008 Collaboration, Brussels Meets Brighton, Shunt, London.
03 2008 Banana, Testing Grounds, Permanent Gallery, Brighton, UK.
11 2007 Westerners Bhutto with Burning Sofa, perfromance with Non Grata, Seoul South Korea.
11 2007 Banana (1) Kopas International Festival of Perfromance Art, Seoul South Korea.
10 2007 Buutros Buutros Ghali, Impromtu performance, with Tanel Saar and Sandra Almendros, UK.
09 2007 God (4). Preavis des Desordre Urbain, Marseille France.
06 2007 God (3), Diverse Universe, Talinn, Estonia.
04 2007 God (2), Fresh Festival, Reading, UK.
12 2006 Visions of Division, with Non Grata, The Brighton Fringe Basement, Brighton, UK.
10 2006 The Other Is You, Station House Opera –The Brighton Fringe Basement, Brighton, UK.
01 2006 Process Transformation 1-23, Brighton, UK.
07 2005 ‘HolmBush Festival’, Exeter, UK.
06 2005 Sonic Shoes, ‘DanceScreen 2005’, Brighton, UK.
04 2005 Process Transformation 1, Brighton, UK.
05 2005 God (1) ‘Diverse Universe’, Lahti, Finland.
05 2005 ‘Performance Festival Là-Baz’, Helsinki, Finland.
05 2005 ‘Art Non Grata’, Tartu, Estonia.
05 2005 ‘Academia Non Grata’, Paide, Estonia.
05 2005 ‘Homo Grandis Natu’, Tallin, Estonia.
05 2005 ‘Time Space Movement’, Paide, Estonia.
11 2004 Boxes, ‘Welcome Gold’, Congress for Performance Art, Berlin, Germany.
10 2004 ‘Goyang International Arts Festival – 7Link’, South Korea.
09 2004 ‘Flow’ – ‘The Anyang River Project’, Anyang, South Korea.
09 2004 Welcome Gold ‘10th International Congress for Performance Art’, Seoul, South Korea.
09 2004 Bow, Gwangju Biennale, South Korea.

VIDEO/PHOTOGRAPHY
06 2008 The YouTube Thing, curated by protoPLAY, Whitechapel Gallery, London.
04 2008 The YouTube Thing, co-curated by protoPLAY and Jamie Wyld, videoclub, The lighthouse, UK.
10 2007 The YouTube Thing, curated by protoPLAY, Phoenix Open Studios, Brighton UK.
10 2004 Connections ‘Goyang International Arts Festival – 7Link’, KOREA.
06 2003 Connections, Weymouth College of Art and Design
03 2002 Photography Exhibition, ‘4eme Festival Montmartre en Europe’, Paris, FRANCE.

MUSIC/SOUND PERFORMANCES
02 2008 Superfluid, Permanent Gallery, with Harry Neve and Keith Harrison.
05 2007 Inside Active Sphere, with Thomas Michalak, The Art of Listening, Brighton Festival, UK.
05 2005 Voice Looping, with Harry Neve, Fresh Festival, Bracknell, UK.
02 2005 Sonic Shoes, University Gallery, Brighton, UK.
2001–2003 Minimal Electronic Music

protoPLAY PROJECTS
03 2009 2(two), Diverse Universe, Parnu, Estonia.
05 2009 ‘Material Girl’, Tallinn, Estonia.
03 2009 2(two), Shunt, London.
03 2009 protoPLAY presents, Highlights & Previews, RichMix, London.
11 2008 I Say These Words As If They’re My Words (Obama), tactileBOSCH, Cardiff.
10 2008 Co-LAB’08, Collaborative Residency, Estonia, Organised with Global Container/Non Grata.
07 2008 What The F*** Is Happening Now?, A one day festival organised with Beatabet.
07 2007 Spectacular Modern Truths (1-5), The Third Space exhibition, Brighton, UK.
05 2007 Can we Infect you, please?, collective performance, Nolias Gallery, London, UK.
05 2006 We know where to find you, collective performance, Permanent Gallery, Brighton, UK
06 2006 DEconstruction/REconstruction, 100 hours exhibition, The Basement, Brighton, UK.
06 2005 The protoPLAY Experiment, Enigma Club Brighton, England. (
03 2005 An Exhibition Within The Exhibition, Brighton, England.

CURATORIAL
04 2008 The YouTube Thing 2, Curated by protoPLAY and VIDEOCLUB, The Lighthouse, Brighton.
10 2007 The YouTube Thing 1, Curated by protoPLAY Phoenix Arts Gallery, Brighton.
02 2007 Visions of Division, VIDEOCLUB, The Showroom, Sheffield, UK
12 2006 Visions of Division, co-curator of 24 hours Non Grata Exhibition, The Basement, Brighton.
11 2006 Non Grata Vilm and Fideo Festival, co-curator of the British section, Parnu, Estonia.
10 2005 Creative Insurgence, Artists from Britain and Estonia
06 2004 FFFFPEPEPEPEPE, Brighton, UK.

WORKSHOPS AND LECTURES:
2005-2008 Workshops with protoPLAY.
01 2008 Visual and Performing Arts students, protoPLAY Brighton University, UK.
06 2007 Survival, DIY 4, A Live Art Development Agency Project, Led by myself and Al Paldrok, England.
01 2007 Visual and Performing Arts students, protoPLAY Brighton University, UK.
12 2006 20th Century Action Art History Lesson Part 17, led by Non Grata, Northbrook College, UK.
05 2005 Performance Factory, Academia, Non Grata, Parnu, Estonia

ARTS COORDINATION
0807 – 0208 Coordinator at SAM (Sussex Arts Marketing), Brighton, UK.

FUNDING AND SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS
2005 – 2008 Supported Artist, Basement Art Productions South East, Brighton, England
2007 ‘Survival’ Commissioned by The Live Art Development Agency.
2006 Deconstruction/Reconstruction Supported by Arts Council England.

Selected Writing:

The Role of the Artist in Societies Dominated by the Knowledge of Science, 2006.

How to watch Art and life: Hawk or Dove?, 2008.

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