aerialist

A Spectacle of Herself - Laura Murphy

I love working with other artists, teasing out ideas and feelings for performance. I’ve recently been collaborating with Laura Murphy, a genre-defying queer performance maker from Bristol, who makes challenging, intimate and spectacular cross-disciplinary work; a fusion of theatre, live art, aerial choreography, dance and verbal explosions.

This shoot explored some of the themes in Laura’s new show, ‘A Spectacle of Herself’, in particular gender queerness, masking, neurodiversity, being seen, taking up space and Laura’s obsession with the 90’s Diet Coke advert!

Following on and zooming out from the occupation and commodification of the body explored in their debut show ‘Contra’, ‘A Spectacle of Herself’ is a vulnerable and deeply personal intervention into what it means to take up space, to spill out and be seen...

‘Exploring mental health, queerness and rage alongside self driving cars and the 21st Century Space Race, A Spectacle of Herself adventures through shape shifting identities and landscapes as we join Laura on a mission to serve herself up [in]appropriately - for your consumption.’

‘With layers of autobiography, lip sync, creative captioning, video and aerial performance in Laura’s critical and cheeky signature style, A Spectacle of Herself navigates between the personal and the political to create a moving, entertaining and politically committed ride.’

Directed by Ursula Martinez, with Laura’s critical and cheeky signature mix of autobiography, lip-sync, video and aerial rope, A Spectacle of Herself navigates the personal and political to seek out new worlds and ways to be seen. It debuts at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August 2023.

Contra productions is a collaboration between Laura and creative producer Nicole A’Court-Stuart, they make, tour & support the development of politically engaged, interdisciplinary and boundary pushing Circus work. Their practice is informed by their queer and neurodivergent leadership, as well as their shared passion for exploring the critical role virtuosic practices can have within live work…