Skip to main content
English and Drama

Jordan McKenzie

Lecturer BA Drawing University of the Arts, London

Profile

I am an artist working across the disciplines of performance and visual art practice. My interest in doing this fellowship comes from a desire to have a rich and on-going dialogue with other fellows as well as collaborate with the departments of Drama, Film and Geography to create a major body of work that examines the cultural and political space of the council estate. In particular I am interested in how dominant stereotypical assumptions about estates may be challenged and subverted to re-imagine/frame them. For the past five years I have engaged with the estate that I live on as an extended studio, running a performance space from an abandoned garage on the estate, (LUPA – Lock Up Performance Art) and making various performances/interventions/installations in and around the estate and Bethnal Green. I want to explore what kinds of voices emerge within this context, who audiences are and how the notion of ‘socially engaged practice’ may be pushed, pulled, tested and critiqued.

I am currently a lecturer in the department of drawing at Camberwell College (UAL) and run a lecture series engaging with contemporary cultural practice and critical theory for foundation level students at Kingston University.

Work

Many of my newer works are made collaboratively and I am involved in a long-term project examining shame, sexuality, trauma and catharsis called Shame Chorus. Working with the psychotherapist Susie Orbach, The Freud Museum and The London Gay Men’s Chorus this project will result in a large choral performance work being produced in 2016. To see more about this project please visit our website at www.shamechorus.com

I am also hoping to start applications for funding another project that examines risk and well-being in relation to the phenomena of Chemsex and have been working on this with Dr Ford Hickson Lecturer in Health Promotion Theory at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This

will result in a sound installation and sculpture that integrates the multiple voices of chemsex (participants, gay and bisexual men, health care workers, researchers etc.)

At UAL Camberwell I also co-run with my colleague Patti Ellis a student centred conference about art and council estates called Look At the (E)State We’re In. This major conference invited the local community of Peckham, artists, students, academics and activists to create dialogue around the phenomena of the council estate as a site for artistic practice. The conference was held in a pool hall, a health centre and the local liberal club and included panel discussions, workshops, film events and an exhibition. Students at UAL Camberwell ran every detail of the conference: selecting the speakers and chairing the panels, curating the events and exhibitions, promoting the event and advertising the conference.

Research

Research Interests:

Socially engaged practice and its relation to concepts of authenticity and agency; pedagogy, neo-liberalism and democracy; DIY cultures; Minimalism and identity politics; Queer Theory and arts practice; performance art; sculpture, drawing and performativity; how artists engage with community and class.

Performance

Live Performance

2015

Shame Chorus, Freud Museum. A collaborative visual art and music project exploring shame and sexuality working with The London Gay Men's Chorus, several high profile composers including David McAlmont and Conor Mitchell and the cultural critic and psychotherapist Susie Orbach.

Sink Estate: Some(w)here, Curated by The Drawing Shed, Wandsworth, London.

2014 

Single Activity Group: Love and Eros Festival, Freud Museum, London.

Single Activity Group: Collaborative Performance as part of Sculpture, Performance, Acme Artists Now, Acme Studios, London.

Fence: Winns Gallery. Part of IdeasFromElse(W)here curated by The Drawing Shed.

Gallery Cupboard Action! Winns Gallery. Part of IdeasFromElse(W)here curated by The Drawing Shed.

2013 

Death Point. Cabaret Melancholique, St Marks Hall, London.

Carl An(t)dre. Major commission working with twenty young performers for The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England. Supported by the Arts Council of England.

Avoidances. Totem and Taboo Festival, Freud Museum, London.

Single Action Group: Vitrine Gallery, London.

Drawing Breath. Drawology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, England.

2012 

Veneration X. Collaboration with Aaron Williamson, Tate Britain, London. Part of Late at Tate.

Feral. Vitrine Gallery, London.

Incident. Lock Up Performance Art (LUPA), London.

Big Country No Home. I-Park, Massachusetts, USA.

Monsieur Poo-Pourri Points at Things. b-Side Festival, Weymouth, England.

2011 

Born To Rule: Portraits of the Big Society (collaboration with Aaron Williamson), Standpoint Gallery, London. Supported by the Arts Council of England.

Puppet Show. Lock Up Performance Art (LUPA), London.

2010 

Monsieur Poo-Pourri Takes a Dip. b-side Festival , Weymouth, London.

The End. DOLL Exhibition Space, Lausanne, Switzerland.

England Is Mine, Trafalgar Square, London.

Monsieur Poo-Pourri Points at Things. Bethnal Green, London.

Scriptacontinua. Kaleid Gallery and bookshop, London, UK.

2009 

Monsieur Poo-Pourri Takes a Stroll. Café Gallery, London, UK.

Tired Old Fruit. Studio1.1, London, UK.

Gallery Termite. Collaborative Performance with Edwina Ashton and Aaron Williamson, Studio1.1, London, UK.

BINGO! Studio1.1, London, UK.

DayIntoNight. Vivid Projects, Birmingham, UK.

Squatting Beckett. Collaboration with Emma Hart, Studio1.1, London, UK.

2008 

Andre Dance. Tate Modern, London, UK

Serra Frottage. Liverpool Street, London, UK.

Drawing/Interior. European Performance Art Festival (EPAF), Warsaw, Poland.

Drawing Action. Galataperform Festival, Istanbul, Turkey.

Taking Comfort in the City. Stromereien Festival, Zurich, Switzerland.

NY Push. Grace Space Gallery, New York, USA.

2007 

Cube Body. Centre for Drawing, Wimbledon College of Art, London, UK.

Universe. GLOW Festival, Newcastle, UK.

2006 

At Arms Length. SpaceX gallery, Exeter, UK.

At Arms Length. OVADA Gallery, Oxford, UK.

Drawing Breath. National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, Scotland.

2004 

Drawing Breath. Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK.

Modular Unit. Sutra Gallery, Bhaktapur, Nepal.

2003 

Interior DIE. NOW Festival, Nottingham, UK.

Body/Drawing. TRACE Gallery of InstallAktion, Cardiff, Wales.

Still/Life. Nottingham Castle, Nottingham, UK.

2002 

Breath/Book. Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal.

DIE. Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK.

2000 

Flesh Annunciation. Third International Festival of Performance Art, St Petersburg, Russia.

Untitled. Kunst V, Cologne, Germany.

1999 

24 Hour Social. Dartington, presented at Never In A Month of Sundays Festival, UK.

Fatherland. Catalyst Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Fatherland. Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK.

1998 

Tithead. ICA, London, UK

Untitled History. Powerhouse, Nottingham, UK.

On Purpose. Red Gallery of Contemporary Art, Hull, England.

1997 

Unstable. The Maze, Nottingham, UK. Presented at EXPO ‘97

De-Moralise. The Green Room, Manchester, UK.

De-Moralise. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland. Presented at Fotofeis ‘97

Action. Klub Kultury, Krakow, Poland.

The Shining. Bunker Sztuki, Poland. Presented at action/akcJA

1996 

Missing. Ferens Gallery, Hull, UK. Presented at ROOT ‘96

Missing. CCA, Glasgow, Scotland.

Cliché Touche. Victoria Leisure Centre, Nottingham, England.

DETOUR. The Strand, Hull, UK. Presented at Pay and Display Festival.

1995 

Patriarchal Poetry. University of Illinois, USA.

SPAWN. University of Illinois, USA.

Exhibitions and Solo Shows

2014

Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkey.

An Englishman Abroad, KASA Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey.

Minimal Interventions: Carl An(t)dre/LeWitt Lean. Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, UK.

2013 

Under Different Circumstances We Could Have Been Friends. Coleman Project Space, London, UK.

Drawology. Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, UK.

2011 

What’s Next for the Body? Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, UK.

Exhibitionism. East Wing Nine, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK.

2009 

Shamanimal. Standpoint Gallery, London, UK.

Bakers Dozen. Café Gallery, London, UK.

The Act of Drawing. Vivid Gallery, Birmingham, UK.

2007 

Universe. GLOW Festival, Newcastle, UK. Present by Amino.

SPENT. C4RD (Centre for Recent Drawing), London, UK.

Dark Mirrors. Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, England.

2005 

Chuggers. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK.

New Drawings. Studio1.1, London, UK.

2000 

Power Dressing. Artsadmin, Toynbee Hall, London, UK.

Back to top