Julia Bardsley

Julia Bardsley is an artist working with performance, video, photography, sculptural objects and the configuration of the audience.[1] Her work challenges definitions of theatre and has been described as 'a major force in British experimental theatre and live art'.[2]

Education and career

Bardsley began her career in theatre directing, writing and adapting works for the stage,[3] and was joint artistic director of the Leicester Haymarket & Young Vic Theatres (1991-4).[4] She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University in 2007.[5] Bardsley lectures at Queen Mary, University of London, and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.[6] Her work has become known for its experimental use of character, solo performance, and elaborate video and set work in a performance art/visual art context.[7]

Bardsley's work is significant in its disruption of traditional understandings of theatre;[8] her hybrid practice first developed in collaboration with designer Aldona Cunningham in the 1990s through their innovative work on Hamlet at the Young Vic, which in turn led to a five-year long creation process combining theatre, performance and photography, resulting in the work 12/Stages/3 (a Memory Theatre) as part of the British Festival of Visual Theatre in 1999.[9]

From the late 1990s onwards her film and video works have been selected for film festivals internationally, [10] collected and represented in collections such as Lux Artists Films[11] and the University of the Arts British Artists' Film and Video Study Collection.[12] She has also created video art work for theatre productions including An Ocean of Rain, at the Almeida Theatre, London, 2008,[13] and Suenos composed by Simon Holt,[14] premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in 2007 .[15][16]

Selected works

The Divine Trilogy (2003-2009)

Presented in London, Glasgow, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Belgium, and Italy.[17] The three parts of which are:

  • Trans Acts used religious imagery, combining video, installation and performance, premiered at The National Review of Live Art (2006),[18] and went on to show at Shunt, London (2007)[19]
  • Almost the Same (feral rehearsals for violent acts of culture) a performance in three sections titled Nigredo, Rubedo and Albedo[20]
  • Aftermaths: A Tear in the Meat of Vision (2009) Commissioned by the SPILL International Festival of Performance[21] uses the character of a cowboy evangelist to evoke apocalyptic and catastrophic visions of a world in chaos.[22]

Improvements on Nature: a Double Act (2009)

Produced for Chelsea Theatre, Sacred Festival, Improvements on Nature: a Double Act explored themes of science using imagery of amputations. 'It's the science of Charles Darwin incubated by the traumatised imagination of Mary Shelley.'[23]

meta_Family (2010-11)

A modular ensemble piece, the meta_Family, presented in Teresina & Rio, Brazil & Outside AiR - QMUL, London. In 2012 editions of the project were presented at Trouble#8 Festival, Brussels & City of Women Festival, Ljubljana.[24]

Medea: dark matter events (2012 - )

A performance project inspired by the Medea myth; drawing on themes of sexuality, eroticism and electricity.[25]

References
  1. Online, LADA-Live (14 June 2018), Artists On: Being an Artist - Julia Bardsley, retrieved 22 March 2020
  2. Johnson, Dominic (1 August 2010). "The Skin of the Theatre: An Interview with Julia Bardsley". Contemporary Theatre Review. 20 (3): 340–352. doi:10.1080/10486801.2010.489045. ISSN 1048-6801.
  3. Johnson, Dominic (29 April 2016). Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK. Routledge. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-134-90743-4.
  4. Guardian Staff (13 October 1999). "Now you see them". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  5. "Bardsley, J - School of English and Drama". www.qmul.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  6. Martins, Central Saint (20 June 2018). "Julia Bardsley". Central Saint Martins. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  7. Johnson, Dominic (29 April 2016). Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK. Routledge. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-134-90743-4.
  8. Johnson, Dominic (31 July 2015). The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-137-32222-7.
  9. Guardian Staff (13 October 1999). "Now you see them". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  10. ArtFacts. "9e Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement | Exhibition". ArtFacts. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  11. "Snow". LUX. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  12. "Results – Search Objects – UAL". collections.arts.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  13. "An Ocean of Rain". Almeida Theatre. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  14. Wheatley, John (2008). "London, Queen Elizabeth Hall: Simon Holt's 'Sueňos'". Tempo. 62 (244): 35. ISSN 0040-2982. JSTOR 40072789.
  15. Charlton, David (2017). The Music of Simon Holt. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-78327-223-5.
  16. "Performances - Wise Music Classical". www.wisemusicclassical.com. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  17. "Julia Bardsley". Theatre and Dance. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  18. Klein, Jennie (2006). "Genre-Bending Performance: The National Review of Live Art Glasgow, Scotland". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 28 (1): 58–66. doi:10.1162/152028106775329688. ISSN 1520-281X. JSTOR 4139998. S2CID 57562299.
  19. Gardner, Lyn (13 April 2007). "Trans-Acts/Untitled (Syncope), Shunt, London". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  20. Johnson, Dominic (29 April 2016). Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK. Routledge. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-134-90743-4.
  21. Company, Pacitti (21 August 2013), Aftermaths: A Tear In The Meat Of Vision Julia Bardsley, retrieved 22 March 2020
  22. Johnson, Dominic (31 July 2015). The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 220. ISBN 978-1-137-32222-7.
  23. Programme, Sacred Festival, 2009, Chelsea Theatre, London, 10 November
  24. Bardsley, Julia (20 March 2020). "Profile".
  25. Laera, Margherita (23 October 2014). Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4081-8472-1.

Further reading
  • Glendinning, Hugo (2009). Artsadmin 30. London: Artsadmin. ISBN 978-0-9524337-6-7. OCLC 609533968.
  • Johnson, Dominic (2016) Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK ISBN 9781134907434
  • Johnson, Dominic (2015), "The Skin of the Theatre: An Interview with Julia Bardsley", The Art of Living, Macmillan Education UK, pp. 219–236, doi:10.1007/978-1-137-32222-7_11, ISBN 978-1-137-32220-3
  • Johnson, Dominic, (2014) The Subtle Aggressors; a conversation with Julia Bardsley and Simon Vincenzi, in Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat, edited by Margherita Laera, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 9781408184721
  • Pacitti, Robert; Ghelani, Sheila (2010). SPILL festival of performance: on agency. Great Britain: Pacitti. ISBN 978-0-9565447-0-4. OCLC 751752908.
  • Pacitti, Robert; Walker, Lucy (2014). Think Tank Workbook. PACITTI Company. ISBN 978-0-9565447-1-1. OCLC 975029157.
  • Staranje [Aging]. Silič, Melita. Ljubljana: City of Women - Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture. 2012. p. 100. ISBN 978-961-92182-6-6. OCLC 875322290.
  • Bardsley, Julia, (2014) "'U' See the Image of her "i"', (London: BopBardsProjects: An Eye Eye Gym book).
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