queertext + liveart: Writing the Queer Body-ody-ody-ody (Mwah)

queertext emphasises the material, erotic realities of our bodies. Queer writers are often searching for ways to transfer the intensities of the live body in action into texts that can affect, move and transform their readers — extending the experience of the body and multiplying the queering possibilities of encounters. This panel engages with various contemporary proliferations of experimental queer approaches to text surrounding live art including queer notions of criticism, academic scholarship, how artists use writing to extend their practice, and text as bodily archive.

Key ideas:

Methods of writing about queer live art
How to capture queer erotics present in live events in written word
Queer disruptions of grammar, English-dominant writing and heteronormativity through alternative forms of writing.
What writing on queer live artists offers to a wider queer audience.

Nando Messias’ work straddles performance art, dance and theatre, combining beautiful images with a fierce critique of gender, visibility and violence. As well as a practitioner, Nando is movement director and a researcher of queer theory and performance with a number of publications in the field. Nando’s latest performance piece, Complete Breech, was commissioned by the Whitechapel Gallery as part of London Open Live 2025.

kane stonestreet (they/he) is Bookshop & Communications Coordinator at the Live Art Development Agency. They have been active in Live Art for the past seven years, as an artist, collaborator, co-conspirator and producer. Their performance practice centres around transness and time, whilst their curation is preoccupied with dyke erotics and censorship. They hold a BA(Hons) in Sculpture and Environmental Art from Glasgow School of Art and studied on the Live Art (MA) at Queen Mary University of London.

Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson specialises in the social contexts of contemporary performance, focusing on queer and trans practices in festivals, nightlife and Live Art. Their work considers how countercultural practices by marginalised artists generate community, resist assimilationist narratives and embrace radical methodologies. As a lecturer and Programme Director of MA Queer Performance at Rose Bruford College (Kent, UK), they are dedicated to developing queer pedagogical approaches to studying and creating performance. Phoebe co-edited a special issue of Contemporary Theatre Review on Live Art (2024), co-convenes the Queer Futures Working Group of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR), is the co-research lead for The Night Club: an international queer performance research network and is co-chair of the board for Duckie.

Unfortunately, Xavier de Sousa will no longer be able to attend this panel.

Important: If you have booked a festival or day pass, you still need to register for this event to ensure your space. Follow the book now link and select the Festival or Day Pass Holder Free Registration. No registration means we cannot guarantee you a space for this event.

queertext + liveart: Writing the Queer Body-ody-ody-ody (Mwah)

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