Bean

Bio

I am an interdisciplinary artist, working across performance & time-based media, writing, curating & design.

These seemingly disparate areas of my practice are connected through a fascination with creating spaces & dismantling structures; psychologically, socially & physically. I am interested in the synthesis and friction between gender constructs, capitalist power structures, ecology & permaculture. My practice explores the interconnections of these through a fiercely political body & heart, rooted in the land and deep listening to people & communities.

My work has been regularly funded by Arts Council England and presented nationally & internationally including; Submerge Festival, Arnolfini, Home Live Art, ArtsAdmin, Venice International Performance Festival, Welcome Trust, Profound Sound, Grace Space NYC.

In 2011 I co-founded ]performance s p a c e [, the UK's only performance art specific studio & exhibition space. I co-directed the organisation, curating events & activities until leaving the in Spring 2020. Parallel to this I have worked as a producer for independent artists and projects, including: Benjamin Sebastian, Anton Mirto, New Queers on The Block, Screen Archives South East, selina bonelli and Daniella Valz Gen.

In 2021 I was awarded an Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice grant, affording me the time & resources to develop new trajectories in my arts practice focusing on sustainability within building & artistic production. This work included studying at the School of Natural Building and Brighton Permaculture. In addition to this I assisted Mathew French's Chalk House (as featured on Grand Designs), worked with artist & lime plaster Jue Sota, designed & fabricated Mother House Studios and established a new production company, Cosmic Constructions with Isabel Ferreira.

Our work as Cosmic Constructions also included peer learning opportunities which focused on encouraging & empowering more women & LGBTQIA+ people to participate in the realms of building & design. The project was underpinned by the ethos that it's good to do stuff together; benefiting our mental & physical health.

In 2022 & 2023, consecutively, I was awarded Arts Council England funding to develop the Trickster Trailer, a mobile arts & ecology laboratory. Working in collaboration as Fiorino & Ferreira, we have presented the project across the South East. The publication for this project is due for release in autumn/winter 2023.

At UCA I am responsible for the Brewery Tap Project Space in Folkestone and the Herbert Read Gallery in Canterbury. The Brewery Tap is very much a self-organising space, giving freedom to the local creative community, UCA staff & students to experiment & develop projects independently. At the Herbert Read I curate an annual programme, with exhibitions in the autumn & spring and support students & staff to produce their own work the remainder of the year.

Links

• Website: https://www.beaninthearchive.com/
• Trickster Trailer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trickster_trailer/
• Cosmic Constructions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cosmic_constructions/

Select Writing & Publications:

• (im)possible Performances, Edited: Helen Davidson (2021)
• Selina Bonelli, (re)collecting (f)ears, Edited: ]ps[ (2019)
• States of Wake, ]performance s p a c e [, Edited: ]ps[ (2017)
• To Destroy Capitalism, We Must Destroy the Family, Live Art & Motherhood, Live Art Development Agency, Edited by Emily Underwood-Lee and Lena Šimić (2016)