‘Touch and impression are key elements of the scene of awakening’ Jeannie Kerswell

I see performance as an essential expression of our connection to each other and to place. My site specific performance works have recently included ‘Don’t Clench’ a response to gentrification in collaboration with Manu Maungandize and Lisa Friedberg at Centre of Gravity, The Soap Works; ‘Open Body’ performance film with community members of St Anne’s, Bristol, for Bleached exhibition Vulgar Earth/University of Southampton in response to research on the climate crisis and coral reef bleaching. High Noon installation/performance process/photographic exhibition exploring embodied practice for navigating significant life transitions, The Create Centre, Bristol. ‘Sandstone’ site specific performance piece engaging pulic in a performative conversation about the separation between nature and culture, Brecon Theatre concourse.

As a live performance artist, I believe in the transformative nature of art – the potential for art to transform individuals and society. That the action itself, if enacted with intention, has a powerful effect on the participant(s). My performances are often collaborative working across specialisms (scientists, creative technologists, musicians and film makers) and often cocreated live with the general public.

My works are process-orientated (see also Process ). If materials are used they are indigenous, organic materials which I gather and prepare or objects which have personal meaning either to me or to those who occupy or have occupied the landscape.

Throughout my practice I have held a fascination for the temporary nature of live art and, in particular, the ephemeral nature of shadows and projected images often interacting with them to create fleeting, manipulated forms. Shadows and the interplay between light and dark also reference my interest in Jungian theory and the process of psychological transitions – shadows being the embodiment of repressed psyche. I have played with organic materials using them to create projected image and applying them to forms or movement within a specific space. More recently I am working with creative technologists with sound scapes and beginning to explore possibilities with augmented reality which are engaging and accessible for public collaboration and story creation.

‘Art can no longer be art today if it does not reach into the heart of our present culture and work transformatively within it, that is, an art which cannot mould society – and through this naturally operate upon the core questions of our society – is not art’. Beuys

More details coming soon…