LIVE X Platform

Bliss Ashley’s (Ruskin School of Art) process starts by sitting still with primary and pre-existing images and videos. Through screenshots they frame and compose frozen movements, they then begin to implement loose narratives and performances. Bliss’ current love is road movies, women on motorbikes, being stuck in traffic jams and most importantly inflatable men.’

For Platform LIVE, Bliss will show an Inflatable Man and an accompanying video. The inflatable man has become an icon for car dealerships across the UK, originally gaining popularity in the US. The rolling body and flailing arms are hard to ignore while whizzing down the highway. Installed in the Yard, this work plays with the history of advertisement as well as the self-promotion involved with showing and selling artwork in gallery spaces. The inflatable man embodies Bliss’s desperate and often humiliating attempts with networking in professional art spaces and advertising art and the self in public spaces and online. An accompanying video provides a backstory, introducing a self-parody character, Sincere Bliss (she/her), a blonde-haired motorcyclist who’s in love with the inflatable man.

Isabella Rolls (Brookes University) work draws inspiration from local folklore stories and characters. Working with a range of media including textiles, paper mache, painting and found objects, she creates masks and props for installations, performances and to facilitate storytelling. Her work explores how women are portrayed within folklore, decentering from the stereotypical concept that witches and shapeshifters are evil and malevolent, and instead celebrating them as a symbol of empowerment and reminds us how crucial stories are as a way to preserve cultural heritage and identity.

Her performance for LIVE x PLATFORM, A hare or not a hare, is derived from local tales about witches that have the ability to shapeshift into creatures. In this work, Rolls emphasises the importance of interconnectedness between humans, animals and the environment whilst exploring themes such as animism and posthumanism.

Isabel Ingram’s (University of Reading) artwork investigates and visualises the emotional and psychological effects of insecurities that afflict people in daily life. Taking reference from her personal experiences and insecurities, including the fear of being negatively perceived by others, a negative self-perception, keratosis pilaris, uncertainty and disconnection in relationships, Ingram creates work to both express these insecurities and to find emotional resonances with audiences. This is expressed through plush wearable sculptures/costumes made from crocheted wool and other textile techniques, which Ingram and others perform in. For Platform LIVE, examples of these sculptures/costumes will be displayed and will then form part of an intimate performance.