TJB
In 2020[1] xe came out as non-binary and is now referred to as TJB.[edit]
Thomas John Bacon (born June 25, 1980) is a British performance artist, artist-philosopher and the artistic director of Tempting Failure[2], which produces the London Biennial of International Performance Art. In 2020 they identified as non-binary and preferred the neopronouns xe/xem . Xe has been making performance art since their professional debut in 2001. Their solo practice is typical associated with body art, extreme performance practices and phenomenology.
"Xe is known for creating artworks that capture an altered space, environment, or period of time that regardless of scale, will often make intense, sometimes visceral, beautiful pieces that place the body in extremis."[3]
"Lost Performances" (2001-2008)[edit]
Affectionally referred by TJB, anecdotally in their teaching as the "lost performances," these are essentially early career credits, including theatre, live art, dance and performance art. Having come from an educational background in film making, it was not until their undergraduate degree at North London University (later renamed London Metropolitan University) that they began to cut their teeth as jobbing performer in cabaret and nightclubs, represented in many of the credit here. This would continue into their postgraduate education at Goldsmiths College, University of London. The significance of this period (2001-2005) has been noted by TJB for the tutoring received from Helen Spackman, mentoring from Ernst Fischer and regular conversations with Franko B. They would also cite the importance of Butoh training at this time from Marie Gabrielle Rotie, Ernst Fischer and Nick Parkin as well as the influential workshops of Gramme Miller and Geraldine Pilgrim.
| Title of Artwork | Year Exhbiited | Venue | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abjection Monologues & WOTSpring | 2001 | site specific: Tower Hamlets, London | UK |
| wounDED | 2002 | East End Collaborations Platform, QMUL, London | UK |
| what AKTION | 2003 | site specific: Islington, London | UK |
| Deep End (Dir. Geraldine Pilgrim for Corridor) | 2005 | Marshall Street Baths, London | UK |
| Forest of Shadows (Dir. Marie Gabrielle Rotie) | 2005 | Chisenhale Dance Space, London | UK |
| where did all the colour go? | 2005 | Goldsmiths, London | UK |
| Club Class (FrenchMottershead) | 2006 | Tate Modern, London | UK |
| The Keeper (Dresden Dolls Tour) | 2006 | The Astoria, London | UK |
| Frightened Ones (Dresden Dolls Tour) | 2006 | Cambridge Junction; Cambridge | UK |
| pi (version 3) | 2006 | Battersea Arts Centre, London | UK |
| Products of Conception II (Dir. Lorraine Smith) | 2006 | LABAN, London | UK |
| avarice + envy | 2007 | Fuck the Back Row Festival, Camden, London | UK |
| the abject scream | 2007 | Whitechapel Gallery, London | UK |
| [meditation] | 2007 | Wired Up Festival, London | UK |
| Products of Conception II, (SilverSmith Dance) | 2008 | Nightingale Theatre, Brighton | UK |
| untitled piece | 2008 | Canal Museum, London | UK |
Theatrical Direction (2008-2013)[edit]
During these years TJB would straddle a divide between between their theatrical work as a director and a solo practice as live artist. They would later drop the term live artist, favouring instead performance artist for its history, international significance and clarity away from blurring itself with theatre. Their direction was combination of text based work and devised work. TJB would often work with young people aged 16-30 on these performances and it was during this time that they would develop their experimentation with staging, audience and creating immersive experiences. It was during the performance based in Gloucestershire that they would also meet Hannah Moore, who helped TJB establish Tempting Failure by working as production manager on four of the festivals.[4]
| Title | Year Performed | Venue | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celebration by Harold Pinter | 2008 | Taylor Theatre, Gloucestershire | UK |
| 100 by Christopher Heimann | 2009 | Taylor Theatre, Gloucestershire | UK |
| Phaedra’s Love by Sarah Kane | 2010 | Taylor Theatre, Gloucestershire | UK |
| Polar Bears by Mark Haddon | 2011 | Taylor Theatre, Gloucestershire | UK |
| A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare | 2012 | Llanthony Priory | UK |
| Mountain Language & New World Order by Harold Pinter | 2012 | Taylor Theatre, Gloucestershire | UK |
| The Failed Method | 2012 | Olympus Theatre, Bristol | UK |
| Requiem | 2013 | Olympus Theatre, Bristol | UK |
Artwork as Thomas John Bacon (2008-2019)[edit]
Dropping the title live artist in 2010, TJB would only be referred to as a performance artist from this point onwards. Significant to this period was meeting Ron Athey in 2010 where Athey lead a intensive 5 day workshop prior to his performance at the NRLA.[5] Other notable alumni of this workshop were Martin O'Brien, Llewyn Maire, Lisa Newman, Elizabeth Short (formally Nick Kilby), and Liz Clarke among others. TJB and Athey would maintain a friendship that lasts to today and has seen TJB interview Athey at SoundandMusic's Extreme Rituals festival[6], alongside Leif Elggren, Holly Ingleton and Vicky Langan, as well as collaborate on the performative paper Traces of Being: A Document of Absence in Words[7]. This is perhaps the most prolific period of TJB's practice as it was last during this time that they founded Tempting Failure in 2012 and would complete their PhD at University of Bristol in the phenomenology of performance art with the thesis, Experiencing a Multiplicity of Self/s[8].
| Title of Artwork | Year Exhbitied | Venue | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book of Blood by Leibniz | 2008 | Chelsea Theatre, London | UK |
| Erosion | 2008 | Sacred Festival, London | UK |
| Psychosis | 2009 | Camden People’s Theatre, London | UK |
| Tintarella Di Luna by Leibniz | 2009 | Rifrazioni Festival | Italy |
| Purification | 2009 | Rifrazioni Festival | Italy |
| Psychosis | 2009 | ScenePool Festival, London | UK |
| Traces of Being I | 2010 | Act Art 8; Metalworks, London | UK |
| Traces of Being IDENTITY EXISTENCE OBJECT (with Llewyn Maire) | 2011 | Seven Arts; Leeds | UK |
| [RE]authoring through Sacrifice | 2012 | The Glue Factory; Buzzcut Festival, Glasgow | Scotland |
| The Lived Body (with Llewyn Maire) | 2013 | Old Shop; Buzzcut Festival, Glasgow | Scotland |
| SELF/s PORTRAIT | 2013 | ACUD Gallery; MPA Berlin | Germany |
| SELF/s PORTRAIT | 2013 | Birmingham Cathedral; HFWAS | UK |
| PASSION/Flower (with Ernst Fischer) | 2014 | Das Theater der Zukunft; MPA Berlin | Germany |
| The Lived Body: REDUX (with Lee Chaos) | 2014 | The Island; Tempting Failure, Bristol | UK |
| FIRE (with FK Alexander) | 2015 | Pearce Institute; Buzzcut Festival, Glasgow | Scotland |
| SELF/s PORTRAIT | 2015 | Panoply Performance Lab; Brooklyn NYC | USA |
| PERCEPTON:Lab | 2015 | Mobius Inc., Boston | USA |
| PASSION/Flower (with Ernst Fischer) | 2015 | Latitude Festival | UK |
| AIR (with FK Alexander) | 2015 | Forest Fringe; Edinburgh | Scotland |
| PRESENCE/s (with Joke Lanz) | 2015 | Ausland; Berlin | Germany |
| Lines in the Landscape Residency | 2017 | Sidney Nolan Trust | UK |
Non-Binary Pronouns[edit]
TJB has stated[9] that their neopronouns are xe/xem, that xe wants to be called TJB. Xe is X, not M or F. They have also expressed a call for understanding for the distinction between verbal and written communication: '...we want to use "we" rather than "I" in our writing to represent our fluidity/multiplicity but may use "I" when speaking.'[9]
Reception and Controversies[edit]
Never a person to shy away from producing difficult work, Thomas John Bacon, latterly TJB, encountered censorship and controversy for producing the artwork of queer artists and creating performances of their own that have seen bodies exposed, intervened into and bodily fluids shed. His own practice was reportedly censored during xis Masters at Goldsmiths College, University of London (2005 - 2006) and Doctorate at University of Bristol (2009 - 2016). The first Tempting Failure in 2012 was forced to relocate from Bristol, UK to London, UK after encountering censorship.[10] Manick Govinda quoted TJB at the time as stating, ‘I will never agree to a single act of censorship.' [10] At this time, TJB took to social media to draw awareness to the issue and was invited by resident artist, jamie lewis hadley to bring the inaugural event to the original location of ]Performance Space[ in London, UK. On February 17, 2014, having been invited by Plymouth University to perform a private view of The Lived Body (premiered at Buzzcut in 2013[11]) at the Peninsula Arts Gallery, Plymouth, UK the performance was cancelled just 1 hour prior to audiences arriving due to censorship on what was described as body mutilation by the gallery curator at the time. The Plymouth Herald would report on this at the time but this article has since been redacted. Though blood would continue to feature in their work - last used in PERCPETION:Lab, exhibited June 20, 2015 at Mobius Inc. Boston, USA - TJB perhaps grew increasingly hesitant to compromise on their work or perform bloodworks outside of specific conditions. They notably took three years[12] to agree a venue for PERCPETION:Lab, reportedly by their own account turning down or withdrawing from bookings for its exhibition in Bristol, UK, Stockholm, Sweden, and Berlin, Germany.
"Failure is an intrinsic part of life. Yet for the most part it is not something we care to celebrate or embrace. To use it as a sole mode of delivery is problematic as you can’t force failure, and if you do it becomes contrived."[13]
Inspired[8] by the writing of Tim Etchell's on Risk and Investment[14], TJB has made live work that can feature existential or psychological risk alongside some artwork that can feature the visceral or explicit bodily risk. It is these latter works that, though built around necessary artistic investment, can often create shock and awe in audiences. This can be illustrated in the words of producer Xavier De Sousa, who wrote in his blog of FIRE by Thomas John Bacon and FK Alexander that it 'was so fucking wrenching that not only you could smell the burned remains all through the night, but the imagery is something that I will not forget anytime soon. Two human beings throwing themselves literally on a path of destruction and fire for their own survival (emotional, physical, natural, urgent and world-wide survival) had us all talking about the limited capacity of human strength, revealing the human body and mind as completely unadjusted to their natural environments. Sure, we are not always surrounded by fire. But we are surrounded by Nature. And against it, we are but mere playing pawns in a game of chess.'[15] TJB's more extreme performance work such as The Lived Body: REDUX and durational work such as CHTHONIC or PERCEPTION:Lab capturing audience in shock or tears. Sometime reaction has lead to intervention such as in 2012 when [RE]authoring through sacrifice was halted for the artist's own safety as their body passed the second stage of exposure through shock & incapacitation, entering hypothermia and was medically assisted to avoid circum-rescue collapse.[16] In 2018, TJB in xis capacity as artistic director of Tempting Failure came under a sustained attack by extreme Right-Wing bloggers[17], media and a Conservative Party Councillor for producing the work of LGBTQ+ artists, including Hermann Nitsch (Austria), Arriana Ferrari (Italy) and Joseph Ravens (USA) as part of TF18. After publication in the obscure Conservative Woman blog, authored by Robert James[18], the article was then picked up another blog titled Inside Croydon which erroneously recorded that the festival had cost £50,000[19] in "council handouts" which was then re-reported by The Sun incorrectly as taxpayers money[20] when in actuality £38,000 came from Arts Council England which is funded by the National Lottery and £10,000 came from the Croydon Creative Partnership Scheme, an investment fund for local businesses to support the arts. Pursuing the attention in national media including The Sun[20], Private Eye, Metro[21], and Evening Standard[22], Councillor Tim Pollard appeared on a 2 hour BBC Radio London phone-in, where he admitted that inspite of hgis criticisms he had never attended any of the performances. Subject to discussion in Croydon Council Chambers, Labour Party Councillor Oliver Lewis would defend the artwork but with erroneous information that the artists featured in the programme suffered from mental health disorders.[23] TJB would later speak out sometime after the criticisms featured in the tabloid media, having refused to previously comment. At first writing in The Stage,[24] TJB highlighted Pollard's quoted notion of a “decency test” was concerning when the anger and hatred that had been created around the artworks seemed to have questioned the legitmacy for LGBTQ+ voices to exist as if their practices were not acceptable.
"Implicit in the commentaries was the idea that such radical acts could never be called art. However, there was never a discussion of what the work represented or an educated critique. Our accusers failed to acknowledge the irony that their reactions produced a commentary on their own ignorance rather than the artists."[24]
TJB would expand this commentary further in an article penned for Exeunt.[25] Here they reflected on the poltical climate at the time and how Right-Wing global agendas were othering voices. Xe considered how the responses to the festival, including the direct abuse they had received after one blog published their private contact details, had exposed the vulnerability of the status-quo and the necessity to ensure work by queer artists, artists or colour, and the dis/abled was seen as legitimate and of value. Xe finish this article by quoting xemself, 'When I said of TF18 that I wanted to, ‘Find hope in the desperate and fractured,’ I couldn’t have known just how important this would become.'[25]
- ↑ Bean, Anne (Summer 2020). "CHOHW" (PDF). CHOHW.
- ↑ "Tempting Failure | Festival of performance art and noise". Tempting Failure | Festival of performance art and noise. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
- ↑ "About". Thomas John Bacon. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
- ↑ "Meet the team". Tempting Failure | Festival of performance art and noise. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "Ron Athey – NRLA30". Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "Extreme Rituals: A Schimpfluch Carnival". Arnolfini. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ Bacon, Thomas John. "Traces of Being: a document of absence in words".
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Bacon, Thomas John (2016). "Experiencing a multiplicity of self/s".
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "https://twitter.com/doctortjb/status/1282948854091075584". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-07-22. External link in
|title=(help) - ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Licensed to censor performance art". Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "The Lived Body — TJB - Thomas John Bacon". TJB. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "PERCEPTION:Lab — TJB - Thomas John Bacon". TJB. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "Tempting Failure". Exeunt Magazine. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ Etchells, Tim, 1962- (1999). Certain fragments : contemporary performance and forced entertainment. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-203-26757-5. OCLC 52059315.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) Search this book on
- ↑ "Thoughts on BUZZCUT". Xavinisms. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "[RE]authoring through Sacrifice — TJB - Thomas John Bacon". TJB. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ conservativewoman.co.uk https://conservativewoman.co.uk/the-arts-column-funded-by-you-art-with-a-capital-f/. Retrieved 2020-07-22. Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ "Robert James, Author at The Conservative Woman". The Conservative Woman. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ insidecroydon (2018-09-13). "Butt plugs, uncontrolled sphincters and £50,000 council grants". Inside Croydon. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Fury as 'arts festival' which featured a display of SEX TOYS and a performer pooing on stage is handed £50k of public money". The Sun. 2018-09-14. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "Art festival featured woman pooing - and it cost you £50,000". Metro. 2018-10-10. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ "London council allocates £10,000 for 'sex toy and toilet' art festival". Evening Standard. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ insidecroydon (2018-10-17). "Butt-plug art 'Not everyone's cup of tea', says councillor". Inside Croydon. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Performer Thomas John Bacon: Public money fund art for everyone". The Stage. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Bacon, Thomas John (1 November 2018). "Tempting Failure: performance art festival became the centre of a firestorm of right-wing media hostility". Exeunt.
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