hancock & kelly live, WAKE Festival. 2017. Photo by Paul Samuel-White.
]performance s p a c e [
]performance s p a c e [ is the UK’s leading performance art specific organisation. Our mission: to facilitate the prime conditions for performance art(ists) in the UK and abroad. We are committed to supporting challenging and difficult practices that embrace performance art as an ever-evolving medium.
]performance s p a c e [ is led by VSSL co-founding co-director; Benjamin Sebastian. Since 2022, ]ps[ has operated as a mobile entity, having temporarily shedded the permament physical space(s) they have come to be known for. Currently (and only for the time being), ]ps[ is imagined as a conceptual space; mirroring the ephemeral and fluid form(s) of the performance art field. ]ps[ programmes and projects take place in spaces and sites locally (London), naitionally and internationally.
VSSL provides a place from which ]ps[ can operate, houses the ]ps[ archive, and collaborates on some of its curatorial and exhibition projects, including PSX: a decade of performance art in the UK (2021) and Rocío Boliver: Decrypting Performance Art (2022).
www.performancespace.org
VSSL provides a place from which ]ps[ can operate, houses the ]ps[ archive, and collaborates on some of its curatorial and exhibition projects, including PSX: a decade of performance art in the UK (2021) and Rocío Boliver: Decrypting Performance Art (2022).
www.performancespace.org
Mythic Time, VestAndPage and Joseph Morgan Schofield, 2021. Photo by zack mennell.
FUTURE RITUAL
FUTURE RITUAL works in service of new and more attuned cultures, collaborating with artists to realise contemporary expressions of ritual. Future Ritual is led by VSSL studio artist Joseph Morgan Schofield.
Intentionally shapeshifting between iterations, FUTURE RITUAL temporarily activates and inhabits borrowed spaces, organising public programmes and pedagogical exchanges, publishing artist-driven research, and collaborating as a creative producer with a constellation of performance practitioners.
FUTURE RITUAL is a vessel for performative and curatorial research into the connections between ritual practices and contemporary queer and performance cultures. Since 2017 we have organised curatorial programmes, convened by creative director Joseph Morgan Schofield in dialogue with a constellation of artists, organisers and thinkers. Since 2022, we have also operated as creative producing organisation, working with performance artists on projects which foster spaces in which to think and feel through ideas of land, desire, belief, mystery and death.
Curatorial partners to date have included: Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Venice International Performance Art Week, ]performance s p a c e[, Kunstraum, Live Art Development Agency, Chisenhale Dance Space, Arnolfini, Hackney Showroom, Centre for Live Art Yorkshire, VFD and SPACE studios. We have produced work at Whitechapel Gallery, ICA (London), Norfolk and Norwich Festival and Tate Britain.
Image by Kane Stonestreet.
Live Art Club
Info for artists
Live Art Club is a monthly platform for artists making Live Art. We hold a supportive space for artists to try out new ideas in front of a warm crowd.
Live Art Club is not intended as a gig - we cannot pay fees, do not charge for entry and while we welcome all kinds of performance, we are really interested in new ideas and experiments.
> Live Art Club events
“Everyone is welcome to come, to watch, to join in, to present or to perform at Live Art Club - we welcome those with years of experience, those who have never tried performing before, those on the run from more traditional disciplines, those who don’t know what-the-fuck-Live-Art-is.
> LADA: What is Live Art?
Live Art Club offers artists space to try out ideas within a supportive community. We will provide documentation of experiments (or not - as artists decide). Live Art Club exists as a context outside of theatre, dance, fine art and academia.
We encourage you to share part of a new idea, an experiment in working with an audience, a way of moving your body, a series of sounds you’re excited by, an unexpected activation of the space, an interruption of tradition, guttural words that want to explode out of you, a re-performance of a forgotten idea and anything else that might look/feel/taste like Live Art.
And we also welcome more unorthodox ‘performances’ - presentations, performative lectures, readings, projections etc.
We cherish passion, risk and failure. We celebrate indecency, aberration and formal corruption or mutation. We cheer for purity and impurity.”
> LADA: What is Live Art?
Live Art Club offers artists space to try out ideas within a supportive community. We will provide documentation of experiments (or not - as artists decide). Live Art Club exists as a context outside of theatre, dance, fine art and academia.
We encourage you to share part of a new idea, an experiment in working with an audience, a way of moving your body, a series of sounds you’re excited by, an unexpected activation of the space, an interruption of tradition, guttural words that want to explode out of you, a re-performance of a forgotten idea and anything else that might look/feel/taste like Live Art.
And we also welcome more unorthodox ‘performances’ - presentations, performative lectures, readings, projections etc.
We cherish passion, risk and failure. We celebrate indecency, aberration and formal corruption or mutation. We cheer for purity and impurity.”
Julian Konuk (L) and Leon Clowes (R), Live Art Club: May 2022. Photos by QueerGarden.
TRY OUT YOUR IDEA
This is a low-low-tech space. We have microphones and can play sound. There are some lights. A single projector. We cannot facilitate performances with complex tech needs, lots of cues etc. Live Art Club is a community orientated space for artists to try out new ideas. It is an unpaid context. However, we do sometimes have funds to support artists to access the event - see below.
To sign up for a slot, please sign up through this google form or email Live Art Club organiser Kane Stonestreet.
WHEN
Live Art Club will take place on the first day of most months. It happens at VSSL studio in Deptford.> Next Live Art Club
> Sign up for a slot
If google forms don’t work for you please email us at LiveArtClubLdn@gmail.com to talk through your performance.
ACCESS
VSSL is a wheelchair accessible venue, with step free access found via Tidemill Way, a wide door, and accessible toilets.We take a social model approach to supporting inclusion and will help to facilitate other access needs (such as sign language or audio description) if you email or message us in advance to arrange this.
We have a travel fund so if you need financial support for travel in order to participate, get in touch and we will try our best to help out.
We are always looking to make Live Art Club accessible, and welcome any suggestions on how we might do this.
>LiveArtClubLdn@gmail.com
WHO
Live Art Club is run by queers. Live Art Club is hosted and administrated by Kane Stonestreet, in dialogue with Rachel Gammon, Nicol Parkinson, Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, Joseph Morgan Schofield and An*dre Neely. We work across Live Art and performance in a variety of institutional and independent contexts in the UK and internationally.The project is supported by VSSL studio and at times with public funds by Arts Council England.
FACET is an innovative nine-month project, presented by VSSL Studio in partnership with Arts Council England, designed to centre and elevate queer people and art. From May 2023 to January 2024, VSSL Studio will collaborate with five contemporary visual artists to co-produce a series of five exhibitions, exploring the ever-evolving and myriad spectrum of contemporary queer expression. Featuring exhibitions from: Alicia Radage + Benjamin Sebastian, June Lam, Rocio Boliver and Marcin Gawin - as well as a dynamic group exhibition. Each showcase will offer an immersive experience that celebrates queer culture through an expansive range of mediums.
As part of FACET, VSSL Studio will facilitate bespoke mentoring packages for lead artists, providing them with valuable opportunities to develop their skills and network with industry professionals. Lead artists will also act as guest curators; hosting a range of events that will complement the exhibitions, including workshops, artist talks, film screenings, and performances. These events aim to encourage visitors to engage with the artwork on a deeper level and promote meaningful conversations around queer culture, while acting as a portal into the non-homogeneity of expanded queer communities, allowing for multifaceted readings of contemporary queer experiences.
Queer art has historically defied traditional boundaries and categories, often using interdisciplinary approaches that challenge established norms and conventions. It is an art form that speaks to and from queer experiences and their’ communities - by exploring themes of identity, gender, sexuality and the intersections between them.
Finally, it is VSSL Studio’s aim to create a supportive and inclusive environment surrounding the FACET programme, that fosters collaboration and strengthens the connective tissues between learning, making, curating and exhibition. VSSL Studio will provide a 4-month studio bursary to a young, queer visual artist - as well as - paid internships for two young, queer people living in Lewisham.
Join us on this exciting journey as we celebrate, centre & elevate queer artists, communities and their continued contributions to contemporary art and the cultural fabric of the U.K.
-> Read more about the complete FACET programme HERE
As part of FACET, VSSL Studio will facilitate bespoke mentoring packages for lead artists, providing them with valuable opportunities to develop their skills and network with industry professionals. Lead artists will also act as guest curators; hosting a range of events that will complement the exhibitions, including workshops, artist talks, film screenings, and performances. These events aim to encourage visitors to engage with the artwork on a deeper level and promote meaningful conversations around queer culture, while acting as a portal into the non-homogeneity of expanded queer communities, allowing for multifaceted readings of contemporary queer experiences.
Queer art has historically defied traditional boundaries and categories, often using interdisciplinary approaches that challenge established norms and conventions. It is an art form that speaks to and from queer experiences and their’ communities - by exploring themes of identity, gender, sexuality and the intersections between them.
Finally, it is VSSL Studio’s aim to create a supportive and inclusive environment surrounding the FACET programme, that fosters collaboration and strengthens the connective tissues between learning, making, curating and exhibition. VSSL Studio will provide a 4-month studio bursary to a young, queer visual artist - as well as - paid internships for two young, queer people living in Lewisham.
Join us on this exciting journey as we celebrate, centre & elevate queer artists, communities and their continued contributions to contemporary art and the cultural fabric of the U.K.
-> Read more about the complete FACET programme HERE
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VSSL studio
Enclave, 50 Resolution Way
Deptford, London, UK
SE8 4AL
Contact: info@vssl-studio.org
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VSSL studio logo design by Ben Normanton.