Snail trails, bear-baiting, and Rice Krispies. Miriam King witnesses three performance works at National Theatre Studio on the last day of SPILL Festival 2015 The durational Snail Portrait, performed over four hours, is a new immersive work combining performance, visuals, text and installation, inspired by the Persian phrase ‘khane be doosh’, meaning ‘home on your […]

Mind, body, spirit. Thomas Wilson reflects on the closing weekend of SPILL 2015 SPILL Festival has, over the past decade, gone from strength to strength, firmly establishing itself as one of the key London arts festivals, programming adventurous and rigorous work from established and new artists, across a number of venues – which for the […]

Karen Finley! Karen Finley smeared in chocolate. Karen Finley performing unspeakable practices and unnatural acts live on stage. Karen Finley getting banned – from art galleries, from rock venues, from public toilets. From public toilets – oh yes! I’ve never seen her live, but have admired her from afar for years. Well, I would wouldn’t […]

Kris Canavan’s meeting place for Dredge, which takes place in public space, is Parliament Square – surrounded by Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, the Supreme Court and the Houses of Parliament. Placing his work in an established site for demonstrations and protests, with its backdrop of historic and imposing Neoclassical and Gothic architecture – symbols of power […]

From pitched rooftops to pitch-black rooms – Rebecca Nice explores performance and installation work seen and heard at Toynbee Studios in the opening weekend of SPILL Festival  A sunny Saturday afternoon on Commercial Street in the constantly-evolving East End of London, where local landmark Toynbee Hall (now Studios) is wedged between soaring new office buildings. […]