Performance artist Selina Thompson’s work exemplifies how working on oneself can be harnessed to change the world. Thompson began making autobiographical solo performances about stereotypically feminine concerns before moving on to political topics with a capital ‘P’, e.g., racism and democracy, topics that “men write books about”, as she puts it. The first solo performance work of her still flourishing career was called Chewing the fat (2013) and addressed eating disorders; her next two, both made in 2015, were companion pieces, with Dark and Lovely focusing on the tribulations, joys and solidarity of Black hair styling, while Race Cards compiles thousands of questions on the topic of race. Subsequently, her most widely acclaimed and internationally toured piece, Salt (2016), reckons with her identity as a British post-colonial subject by recounting her endeavour to retrace the transatlantic slave trade route on a cargo ship. Her current work, Twine, arguably her most personal piece to date, is the show she previously vowed not to make because the subject matter, her own adoption, was too emotionally fraught to tackle. We discuss the continuities across these works: the defiance of shame, the channeling of anger, her commitment to durational research and development, and how all of the above have impacted her life, for better or worse.

Selina Thompson (b. 1990, Birmingham) is an artist and writer whose work has been shown and praised nationally and internationally. Her practice is chiefly concerned with grief, love, and the world to come, and she seeks to make work that is visually striking, and lyrical, even while grounded in politics. She won the ISPA Distinguished artist award in 2023, and her credits, both with and outside of her company, Selina Thompson Ltd, include BBC4, BBC Radio 3, The Royal Court Theatre, The Public Theater and BAM as well as theatres across the UK, Europe, South and North America and Australia.

Oriana Fox is a London-based, New York-born artist with a PhD in self-disclosure. She puts her expertise to work as the host of the talk show performance piece The O Show.

Credits:
Produced, edited and hosted by Oriana Fox
Original theme song written and performed by Paulette Humanbeing
Background music loop by Teddybeast6
Special Thanks to Lara Perry, Katie Beeson and Janak Patel

Send us a text

Visit www.theoshow.live for regular updates or follow us on Instagram.

Veteran performance artist and Artistic Director of SPILL Festival, Robin Deacon makes self-disclosing work that deflects easy assumptions about who he is and what makes him tick. This discussion nevertheless locates two consistencies within his life/work: he has a penchant for avoiding rehearsal and a tendency to exemplify his perspective by talking about musicians and music rather than visual artists and art. In this roving conversation, Robin addresses the appeal of varied approaches to autobiographical practice, from the ironically humorous to the earnestly authentic; his feelings about success and mid-career status; the label, 'submerging artist'; and many wise anecdotes from his long and storied teaching career.

Robin Deacon (born 1973 Eastbourne, England) is an artist, writer, filmmaker and curator based in Ipswich. His work, which has toured venues in the UK, US, Europe and Asia, is acclaimed for its innovative approach to the lecture as an art form. In his current role as Artistic Director of SPILL Festival, he emphasises unusual perspectives and untold histories.

Oriana Fox is a London-based, New York-born artist with a PhD in self-disclosure. She puts her expertise to work as the host of the talk show performance piece The O Show.

Credits:
Produced, edited and hosted by Oriana Fox
Original theme song written and performed by Paulette Humanbeing
Background music loop by Teddybeast6
Photo of Robin Deacon by David Loney
Special Thanks to Lara Perry, Sven Van Damme, Katie Beeson and Janak Patel

Send us a text

Visit www.theoshow.live for regular updates or follow us on Instagram.

This episode features an interview from Oriana's archive - a 2016 discussion with feminist art foremother Martha Wilson whose audacious work explores appearance and subjectivity through self-representation, both live and to camera. Wilson's important work provocatively teases out the relationship between the personal, the institutional and the political to question gendered double standards. Making art in the context of the 1970s when Wilson first started, entailed acting as if she had the confidence to take on the identity of artist, despite creativity being misunderstood to be a male-only pursuit. Galvanised by her detractors instead of discouraged, Wilson's method of faking it to make it, as Oriana points out, is similar to a therapeutic tactic called 'shame attacking'. Therefore, the two discuss the potential for critical, feminist performance art to breed confidence, that is, if artists commit, as Wilson has done, to being anything but pleasant.

Martha Wilson is a pioneering feminist artist and gallery director, who over the past five decades created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformations, and “invasions” of other people’s personae. As Founding Director Emerita of Franklin Furnace in New York, she continues to help run the artist-run organization whose stated mission is to make the world a safe place for avant-garde art.

Oriana Fox is a London-based, New York-born artist with a PhD in self-disclosure. She puts her expertise to work as the host of the talk show performance piece The O Show.

Credits:
Produced, edited and hosted by Oriana Fox
Original theme song written and performed by Paulette Humanbeing
Background music loop by Teddybeast6
Special Thanks to Lara Perry, Sven Van Damme, Katie Beeson and Janak Patel
Photo of Martha Wilson by Sara Kaplan

Send us a text

Visit www.theoshow.live for regular updates or follow us on Instagram.