Glasgow-based performance artist FK Alexander recently debuted her new show VIOLENCE as part of the Take Me Somewhere to much acclaim
BEING in Show Business is extremely glamorous and exciting. As I write, I am travelling from London to Glasgow, dragging a suitcase full of hammers and axes, in a stuffed train in 25-degree heat.
I’ve just taken my nine-person piece about Princess Di being reincarnated as a TV-smashing grrl gang to a radical underground DIY queer art festival in Dalston where I hung out with legendary fashion designer Pam Hogg and a load of wrecked drag queens.
The second show that day was a feminist wrestling noise performance art collective called Theresa May Smack Down.
Even I am not that sure what these words mean.
Tomorrow I go to Copenhagen with a show where I channel the spirit of Judy Garland in a one-to-one interactive noise performance, singing Over The Rainbow to people, one by one, for three hours. This is off the back of performing a new commission, VIOLENCE, here in Glasgow at the second Take Me Somewhere festival at Tramway recently and touring to America and other parts of Europe.
My life is part Nathan Barley, part fully domesticated house wife and mother to two kittens; part Hello Kitty, part Alice Cooper.
Working in “the arts” is unpredictable. There is no imposed routine being self-employed, the schedule of touring and making work is fairly random and dependent on a lot of people, venues, partners and good fortune. I am extremely fortunate in that people have believed in my weirdness enough to help me make it and come to see it, pretty relentlessly for the past eight years.
If it all stopped tomorrow I’d not feel short-changed. But I also hold the idea each morning that it’s only the beginning, and that the gratitude for what I get to do is, I believe, what keeps me in work.
I also devote a lot of time to creating a stable home environment for myself and my soon-to-be husband Andy and our kittens, Judy Garland and Diana Spencer. I take seriously the “be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work” philosophy. I clean my flat a lot. I like to keep on top of The Boring Stuff. I love the boring stuff.
I like walking very quickly listening to music. I clear my mind from the last round of work and find messages for what inspires me next. Walking round cities, especially Glasgow where I live, or Edinburgh, my home town, has inspired me for a long time.
They are always having some part of them torn down and recreated. Creation and destruction always. I also love to get out in to some big nature and get some perspective, have a wee spiritual massage, some peace and quiet and reflection.
My favorite part of the day is getting in to bed. If it’s been a long travel day, then it’s even more lovely. It’s fantastic to cut about the world, connecting to people through art, smashing things and playing loud, industrial techno. But it’s very nice to hold a little paw and fall asleep with my three favourite creatures, planning my next nonsense.
FK Alexander performs VIOLENCE on June 9 at the Splayed Festival, The Place, London, and Over The Rainbow on June 16 at Cork Midsummer Festival, Cork
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