For Demonstration Purposes Only, Bristol School of Art Artist-Teachers Exhibition, 2026

I was pleased to be invited to perform at the private view of 

For Demonstration Purposes, Bristol School of Art at The RWA, curated by Anya Beaumont - 11 -17 July 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Daxj88FglIo/

Anya Beaumont says: 

"For Demonstrating Purposes Only is now open at Bristol School of Art’s Queens Road Campus!

What began as teaching demonstrations has been transformed into a unique exhibition celebrating the creativity that can emerge in the classroom. Featuring work from artists and lecturers from across the UK, the exhibition showcases incredible pieces originally created to demonstrate techniques, processes and ideas during teaching."

The performance was filmed on the day by the Bristol School of Art team, including Wesley Owen and a volunteer foundation student. The film was then shown throughout the exhibition.

My Performance, 'Against the grain, with the flow', revisited the 2019 version, in the context of my current practice as an artist-teacher-researcher.

In this performance Against the Grain, with the Flow, I present a relational equation which emerged from an artistic understanding of my research project, bringing my live-art process-based practice:

Process/Product= Learning Capital?

The equation asks whether prioritising art-as-research (process-based) over art-as-product (a capitalist view of education) in secondary education may produce better, deeper, and more meaningful learning. The shift from a motivational focus on exam targets to a focus on learning remains a challenge, seeking to ‘re-humanise’ education and bring enjoyment back into art education (Giroux, 2011; Biesta, 2010).

The performance enacts the struggle for the artist-teacher to stand (with a foot stuck in a fishbowl, symbol of a system that only looks onto itself) and make a mark on the etching plate of education when rubbing against the grain (wet-and-dry paper is attached to the bottom of the shoe). The prints created from the etching plate (the tangible art product) remain unframed, unpresented

and stacked under a dead rabbit— a tribute to Beuys’ performance How to Teach Painting to a Dead Hare (Beuys, 1965)—symbol of the unrecognised value of childlike play in art as a meaningful outcome. The dress I wear for this action has travelled with me through multiple residencies, including a British Council fellowship at the Venice Biennale, capturing elements of my learning through resistance in each site—an embodied archive.