This month the new issue of Performance Research is published. The issue titled: On Libraries contains some fantastic articles exploring contemporary performance practice within the concept and site of the library. I am delighted to have an article published in this issue.

I have been providing mentoring and critical friend services to several performance makers and organisations during 2016/17. A Critical Friend can be described as 'A trusted person who asks provocative questions and offers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. A critical friend takes the time to fully understand the context of the work presented and the outcomes that the person or group is working toward. The friend is an advocate for the success of that work'  Heller, Harold (1988)

Thisdurational outdoor piece was made for Beacons Icons & Dykons, to accompany a showing of Jarman's Last of England. A poetic, nightmarish journey through a dark landscape of totalitarianism and despair...

DARK, COLD, the faint smell of sulphur in the air.

Her body wrapped in the fluttering flag, regal and proud she stands in the night. 

She squeezes the newspaper wrapped chips, another symbol of her land, held aloft in her hand. Ketchup trickles slowly down her arm.

For our second season of RE:MAPPING we took up residency in Staple Hill library. 

Our investigations through performance and writing lead us to create The Passport of The Imagination. Every page of this gorgeous little book was designed by the participants and inspired by their experience of RE:MAPPING. We'd like to share this with you and so the Passport is AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD- just click on the links at the bottom of this page. It also comes with a  guide to filling it out should you need any inspiration!

New Ways of Thinking About Ourselves...

Liz Clarke & Company have been commissioned by South Gloucestershire Council to work in three libraries for three years. We are working with people who want to improve their mental wellbeing and people living with dementia, their carers and allies. 

The project is driven by my performance practice enabling people to create new performance work through series of workshops. Each year I invite a new artist to work alongside me to create resources and provocations for the library service.

In 2012 I invited women of all ages and backgrounds to take part in a unique two year project working with international artists to create a very special publication. This was to be the last project under the Drastic Productions banner before morphing into Liz Clarke & Company.

The Compendium of Super Heroes and Alter Egos was to be a collaborative process culminating in a graphic novel promoting positive images of women and mental health issues.  It became that and so much more…

My Inflatable One has been a 5 minute cabaret piece, an hour long interactive durational experiement and a kid's performance where the mini audience stormed the stage!

Part mundane, part spectacle, part wonderment, this encounter charts the quest for Bigger! Better! More!

It has shown at Arnolfini, Thorny, Haphazard and Psychodrama.

Image credit: Vonalina Cake Photography & Toaster In The Bath

What People Said About My Inflatable One

Part one-to-one, part hyper inflated stage show, Construction Site invites the audience to re-construct the artist as a super engendered being! Using costume to inform a fictional character, the audience member is encouraged to construct backstories, histories and psyches for this fictional being, before adorning the body with the identity.

Kustom Kunst Kommandos is a live homage to the Kenneth Anger short film 'Kustom Kar Kommandos'. A female take on the homo erotic short; this performance charts the chrome, the shine & the buff of a motoristic love affair.