Performance Platform is proud to present…

Helen Davison’s practice occupies the moments where communication fails. They use voice, body, and actions to find moments of connection outside of their self and embrace process rather than outcomes or images.

Helen has presented work nationally and internationally including:

• LATITUDES festival (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia)
• Parlour Geometrique, Chiswick House (London, UK)
• Middlesbrough Art Weekender (Middlesbrough, UK)
• ‘’till Time is Through, ]Performance s p a c e[ (Folkestone, UK)
• Revolve Festival, Uppsala Konstmuseum (Uppsala, Sweden)
• and has been commissioned to write text responses to live performance works for MEANDER, PAErsche, Köln, Germany, (re)collecting (f)ears, Selina Bonelli and Salvage Festival, ]Performance Space[ and Writing Bodies, Tentacular Magazine.

Helen is founding member of SITE. It is an initiative inviting performance artists to collaborate on site specific performances and actions. They are also an independent curator having initiated Flowing Through Selves(2017 – present): a platform for LGBTQAI+ performance artists and (im)possible performances (2021): an Arts Council funded project and online exhibition.

Visit Helen’s Website: Click here…

Pierce Starre and Nicholas Ball present “Trousers”.

The first people ever recorded wearing trousers were the nomadic Steppe people of Western Europe. Both women and men wore trousers during this time. However, the ancient Greeks ridiculed people wearing trousers; they considered the appearance of trousers to be feminine.

Throughout most of modern history, however, trousers were worn almost exclusively by men and patriarchal structures promoted males as the dominant partners within relationships.This was the case in the United States at the end of the 19th Century, when the idiom “Who wears the trousers?” appeared within common usage. This term was used as a means to describe a heterosexual relationship, in which a position of power and dominance, is held by a female, rather than by a male.
Patriarchy continues as a hierarchical structure, in which men are encouraged to be socially dominant; spewing repugnant ideals of misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.These ideals are utilised to violently dominate and oppress women, queer, trans and genderqueer individuals.

Trousers explores the lived experiences of a queer/genderqueer couple and the ways in which internalised and oppressive dominant social narratives manifest within the power dynamics of their relationship.

Pierce Starre 

(They/Them) is a live performance artist based in Liverpool. Their work predominantly explores their cultural experiences as a queer, working class, neurodivergent Child of Deaf Adults (CODA), within a broader social and political context. Their artworks provide the viewer with an opportunity to be immersed within an embodied experience, creating a platform for connection, reflection, and discussion.

Pierce participated in Live Art Development Agency’s DIY16: 2019 – Ania Bas & Amy Pennington: Performance for Shy people. Playwriting for dyslexics. They also received mentoring support from Ireland’s leading Performance Artist; Amanda Coogan. In January 2020 Pierce performed as part of the CO-CREATION LIVE FACTORY “Dissenting Bodies Marking Time” at Venice International Performance Art Week. Their recent performance, Reflection, was shared as part of Performistanbul’s Stay LIVE at Home project; the work has been added to the British Library collection. Pierce is also a recent recipient of an Arts Council award as part of the Arts Councils Covid-19 Emergency response fund.

Visit Pierce’s Website: Click here…

Nicholas Ball 

is a Liverpool based multidisciplinary Artist and Art Psychotherapist with a practice rooted in Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic theory. His work often centres around early life experiences, trauma, attachment and the subconscious. Nicholas is part of a group of radical anti-oppressive therapists working towards personal, local and systemic change through an intersectional lens. Previous works have explored internalised dominant social narratives, such as patriarchy, toxic masculinity and cultural homophobia.

The artists have worked together previously through a 12 hour live streamed durational work titled (In)visible, which was commissioned by UnShut Festival 2020. The work explored what it means to be visible as a queer couple in a heteronormative world.

Play Video: Click here…