Horny, Lonely
Hamish MacPherson In March and April 2020 Hamish MacPherson used social media to ask, “Are you having sexual or sensual intimacy with people who are distant from you during the COVID-19 lockdowns?” People replied anonymously and Hamish asked friends and acquaintances to record themselves reading these texts out. Then Matt turned them into this podcast. It contains some sexual references. Words: anonymous. Voices: Adam Wilson Holmes, AF, Angela Andrew, Anne-Gaëlle Thiriot, Beth Bramich, Carolin Meyer, Conor James, Elizabeth Rochester, Emilia Robinson, Francisco Zhan, Genevieve Costello, Gillie Kleiman, Gregory Hari, GS, Hannah Bellil, HMTIDT4U, Joshua Jayraj, Maria Sideri, May, Michael Whitby, Molly Chapman, Molly Martian, Nina Sever, Paul Hughes, Peter Jacobs, Ralph Pritchard, Sean Alayo, Tamara Tomic-Vajagic. Music/editing: Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau You can buy a book of the texts with original photographs from stilllifemag.org with profits going to Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement and Covid-19 Prisoner Emergency Fund. http://badvibesclub.co.uk/upcoming-archive/# Naked Boys Reading: Pulling Out (Manchester)
Curated by James Ley @ Manchester Art Gallery Friday, 27 September 2019 Doors 7:30pm / Show 8:00pm £9 advance / £12 on the door Pulling out: power play and exits. We all have the power to withdraw but how do we use that power in our relationships and in our sex lives without ending up isolated and alone? As Brexit “negotiations” reach a series of unsatisfying climaxes a number of questions are raised. Is the EU a power bottom? Can Scotland gain power by pulling out of the UK? And outside of politics Is pulling out the only power we have? Are ghosting and abandonment violent acts? Extract yourselves from your homes and get to Naked Boys Reading in our triumphant return to Manchester! We really hope you can cum. Total Top: Dr Sharon Husbands Don't Pull Out Bottom: The Duchess of Pork ** About Naked Boys Reading** Naked Boys Reading is the perfect intimate live event: a literary salon featuring in-the-buff readings by local beefcakes, bears, twinks, otters, butch femmes, sissy sluts, bois next door, and non-binary babes with an exhibitionist streak and lovers of naturism with a well-endowed library. What began in a dirty queer basement in 2012 has grown to be an international hit! With shows in the UK, Germany, Canada, and Argentina! **About the Curator** James is a playwright and screen writer living and working in Edinburgh. His recent play ‘Love Song to Lavender Menace’, which premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, will be back in August at Summerhall. James’s previous plays include ‘I Heart Maths’ for Oran Mor, ‘Spain’ for Glasgay! at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, and ‘Up!’ for Edinburgh Fringe. James loves the romantic comedy genre and a frequently recurring theme in his work is queer history. He recently received funding from the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Creative Scotland to write ‘I Am a Telephone’, which looks at the lives of 20th century iconic artists just before and just after the AIDS crisis. James’s plays are published by Oberon Books. NBR Pulling Out was originally produced in association with Pride House Glasgow. Thanks to Michael Richardson and his team! On 6 October it will be a full year since I participated in any creative activity. That's nearly two months away but I fully expect that date to arrive and for the situation to remain unchanged.
In 2018 I only participated in my own creation AMASS at Emergency: A full day out for the curious - although I did feel at the time that this was the most cohesive, fully-realised and entertaining piece of work that I have created. I did briefly appear in a gallery film at HOME, something I participated in at MIF17, although this was just crowd scenes and not the specific part I filmed for the event, which never made the BBC4 or the gallery cut of the documentary. It is strange how momentum quickly turns to stasis, activity to inertia. Progress rapidly becomes history. I don't know why the opportunities have dried up - certainly something to do with vogues for community inclusion ending - or at least the way they relate to funding - which is the key driver of community activity at the professional level. Public-participation nudity has similarly disappeared. There no longer seems to be installations or performances. Spencer Tunick has spent all my goodwill; no one else has stepped in to replace him with projects requiring bodies. And I am no longer so confident with my body anyway. The fears that evaporated in 2010 with Everyday People have returned and fogged everything. Whatever has happened across the numerous activity streams I was accessing the evaporation has taken my confidence with it. I no longer have any confidence that I would actually put myself forward for anything new: experience seems to have taught me what 'suits me' and what is 'not suited to my interests'. As for creating my own new work, the feelings of fraudulence - which have always been a quiet voice at the back of my head - are more compelling than the energy or imagination required to organise and design anything new. I have plenty of ideas for improving the elements of AMASS that I was not - or less - happy with but never having moved beyond opportunities to show 'new' work, developing an existing one seems insurmountably problematic. I am looking for a group of men for a movement-based durational performance installation in early October 2018.
The performance will sit in the uncertain space between dance and performance art. Will not involve any dancing or complex movement but will involve collaborative contact and close proximity. The piece will be performed at Z-Arts as part of an annual microfestival with around 20 other performances and installations occurring through the day. I have presented work at this festival previously in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Please email [email protected] for further details or to register interest. I haven't participated in anything since MIF17's Fatherland production in July 2017 and I haven't made any work since AT NIGHT I LOCK THE DOORS for Emergency (Word of Warning) in October 2017.
Sometimes, I think that's that. I have passed on a small number of theatre opportunities and decided against auditioning for the Royal Exchange's production of Maxine Peake's Queens of the Coal Age, which has just ended its run - largely because I was going to be away from Manchester on holiday for more than two weeks of the run. I did catch the show and it was great: the community chorus element - largely silent this time - was well-done and it looked something I would have enjoyed. Ideas for work come and go but the lack of progress (I appear to be stuck in a loop) has sapped my energy and enthusiasm. But, ideas have started coming again. I did some work on an idea for a solo that I think is beyond my technical reach - I do feel that I should attempt a solo at some point. It's a fear I need to face and conquer. But I have now had an idea for a group performance that I think has potential, although time is relatively short to develop and submit it. But things look better than they did even a week ago. Momentum is everything. LOST SENSES
LOST SENSES is structured around a one-month campus aimed to experience and enjoy senses, remembering that embodiment is not just textual but consumed by a world filled with smells, textures, sights, sounds and tastes. Generating a re-opening of senses exploring otherness, lost and participation, everyday life will be critically tested as a never static reality made of bodies, time and experiences. Mainly working as a hub for thinkers and a space for reverie, LOST SENSES will promote daily live experiences to engage diverse audiences through meaningful inter(actions), opening up reflections on a wider scale through processes of documentation and mediation. The campus wants to reflect on the Now: to reorganise, open and reshape senses, generating broader reflections on our own identities, our communities and beyond. Website and full programme 30TH AUGUST: Soundroom 6pm to 8pm JocJonJosch - o In past works the Anglo-Swiss collective have used their bodies to test the limits of collective and individual identity. For LOST SENSES they will work with sound and the body to devise a vocal performance based on a corruption of the collective name 'jocjonjosch'. By a process of reduction and repetition, the utterances that occur will render the original name meaningless at the same time as evoking a sense of familiar humanness. FREE Fatherland, Manchester International Festival: a deeply affecting look at masculinity, with a thumping soundtrack i News ***** Fatherland review at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester – ‘moving and euphoric’ - The Stage **** Fatherland review – three dads and a ladder give a voice to angry Britain - The Guardian **** Manchester international festival theatre roundup – emotion socks you in the face - The Guardian **** Fatherland finds thrilling beauty in the lives of ordinary men: Manchester Royal Exchange, review - The Telegraph **** MIF 2017: Fatherland – Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester - The Reviews Hub *** MIF 2017 - Fatherland, Reviewed - Manchester Confidential I have an image in the new gay/queer-identifying publication #fuckHate
See link for more information and how to get a copy. #fuckHate |
Peter Jacobs
Performer, model, art participant, dance reviewer, blogger, wannabe performance artist, visual and performative arts fan - oh and there's a day job. Archives
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