SPILL YER TEA #1

01 August 2019

19:00 – 23:00

Constellations, 35 – 39 Greenland St, Liverpool L1 0BS.

Produced & Curated by Pierce Starre

Technical Support: Luke Castelino

Photographer: Andrew Wilson & Andrew AB

The first edition of SPILL YER TEA by Performance N’ Tha was entirely unfunded and DIY. Twelve local, national, and international artists performed at the live event in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle.

SPILL YER TEA is an open supportive platform for emerging and established artists, students and graduates and collectives and groups to share new artwork that is either ready-to-go, or is in its developmental stages.

“A breath of fresh air” – Audience Member

GEMMA JONES (UK)

SPIT PEARL SPIT

This durational performance challenges viewers by juxtaposing elements of glamour and repulsion, as the artist holds statuesque poses while continuously spitting out pearls—a symbol traditionally associated with beauty and refinement. The pearls, transformed into something grotesque through this act, provoke a visceral reaction, subverting their usual allure and questioning societal ideals of femininity and beauty. The color pink, central to the piece, is explored in all its complexities, embodying both softness and intensity, innocence and provocation, as the artist invites the audience to reconsider its layered cultural meanings.

Image: Andrew AB

NATALIE WARDLE (UK)

CONTROL PANT SYMPHONY

This performance explores the intense pressures women face to mold and constrain their bodies in pursuit of an idealized form shaped by societal expectations and celebrity influence. Through acts symbolizing restrictive practices—such as mimicking celebrity workouts, using tit tape to manipulate appearance, or emphasizing body-shaping techniques—the artist reveals the lengths women go to conform to narrow beauty standards. The piece highlights how these practices, marketed as empowerment or self-care, often serve to enforce rigid ideals, making the female body a canvas of external expectations rather than a true expression of self.

Image: Andrew Wilson

FLLOYD KENNEDY (UK)

BESSIE BARES ALL

In this clowning sketch, the performer uses humor and absurdity to blur the boundaries between performance and authenticity, cycling between singing, rapping, and strumming the ukulele to keep the audience in a playful yet curious state. With each shift in style, the clown persona begins to unravel, hinting at vulnerabilities and glimpses of the performer’s true self beneath the exaggerated mask. As the act progresses, the humor grows more introspective, and the act of revealing the performer’s true identity becomes a commentary on the fluidity of identity itself, challenging the audience to question what lies behind every facade.

Image: Andrew AB

KELLY SWIFT (UK)

EQUILIBRIUM

This participatory performance invites audience members to enter a designated square and collaborate physically and mentally to achieve a collective sense of balance within its boundaries. As participants adjust their bodies in relation to one another—shifting weight, changing stances, or moving subtly to stabilise the dynamic—the performance becomes a metaphor for the complexities of social harmony and mutual support. The act of balancing within the square requires a heightened awareness of personal space, shared vulnerability, and interdependence, transforming a simple geometric space into a dynamic exploration of unity, trust, and the delicate equilibrium of human relationships.

Image: Andrew Wilson

PRETENTIOUS DROSS (UK)

STRANGE LOOP

This looping performance blends drag, visual projection, body art, spoken word, and film to create a cyclical narrative that deconstructs and reconstructs gender identity in real time. Through the repetitive acts of lip-syncing, drinking water, and performing a genital tuck, the artist blurs the line between the constructed and the innate, with each gesture symbolizing both a physical transformation and a deeper commentary on fluidity and self-perception. When the performance reverses, the acts unravel in a kind of rewind, unmasking the artifice and vulnerability of gender performance, and inviting the audience to question the stability of identity as well as the societal rituals of presentation, concealment, and self-acceptance

Image: Andrew Wilson

RAH (UK)

SOLVE ET COAGULA 22

In this visceral performance, the artist extracts their own blood to create a tattoo depicting symbols from tarot cards, merging bodily essence with ancient archetypes to explore themes of fate, identity, and self-determination. Each tattooed image, rendered in the artist’s blood, serves as both a personal talisman and a powerful invocation, binding physical pain with spiritual introspection and inviting the audience to witness the raw vulnerability of self-marking. By etching tarot imagery—a tool traditionally used to interpret hidden truths—directly onto their skin, the artist transforms the ritual of tattooing into a confrontation with destiny, challenging the boundaries between the body’s material limits and its metaphysical journey.

Image: Andrew Wilson

LAURA MUTCH & FRANCIS GANNON (UK)

PLASTIC TREES

This multifaceted project intertwines film, movement, and fragmented text to critically examine the intersections of gender, technology, and the objectification of women, emphasizing how contemporary media shapes perceptions of femininity and agency. Through dynamic visual sequences and choreographed movements, the work illustrates the ways in which women’s bodies are commodified and manipulated within digital landscapes, highlighting the tension between empowerment and exploitation in an age of constant surveillance and consumption. Fragmented text serves as a narrative thread, interrupting the visual flow to provoke reflection on the language of sexual appropriation, inviting viewers to confront and dismantle the cultural narratives that reduce female identity to mere spectacle within a technological framework.

Image: Andrew Wilson

KAJOLI (UK)

MATRIARCHAL TARANTULA

This piece critiques the illusion of empowerment granted to women within patriarchal structures, where certain women are given limited authority or status that serves only to reinforce the system’s inherent inequalities. By positioning women against each other, these systems create a facade of agency, while the real power remains tightly controlled and unchallenged by the patriarchy itself. This so-called “fake power” not only perpetuates internalized misogyny but also diverts focus from solidarity, subtly coercing women into roles that oppress rather than liberate each other, ultimately sustaining the patriarchal order they seek to dismantle.

Image: Andrew AB

FRANCES KAY (UK)

HOW DO YOU LIKE MY DRESS?

In this narrative autobiographical performance, the artist uses a Union Jack dress as a symbol of national identity and personal history, exploring themes of belonging, fragmentation, and the complexities of cultural heritage. As the performance unfolds, the act of cutting up the dress serves as a powerful metaphor for deconstructing preconceived notions of identity and the societal expectations tied to national symbols, revealing the layers of personal experience that often go unseen. By meticulously pinning the dress back together, the artist not only reclaims their narrative but also emphasizes the resilience of identity—transforming the once-flagged garment into a patchwork of stories, struggles, and triumphs that speaks to the multifaceted nature of self in a contemporary world.

Image: Andrew AB

BENJAMIN ROSTANCE (UK)

CIRCLE PERFORMANCE

In this live charcoal drawing performance, the artist uses sweeping, intense gestures across a large 7-by-6-foot wall space, embodying the raw and chaotic energy of PTSD through expansive, visceral marks. The medium of charcoal—smudged, erased, and reworked—mirrors the cycles of trauma, as each layer speaks to moments of clarity, distortion, and recurrence, capturing the haunting impermanence of memory. The physicality of the performance, with the artist’s body pressing against and moving along the wall, creates a dynamic, immersive experience, making the audience feel the overwhelming presence of PTSD’s weight and the struggle to reclaim agency within it.

Image: Andrew AB

ALASDAIR AMBROSE (UK)

ALTERCATION: 010819

In this durational full-body shaving ritual, the artist uses the vulnerability of shaving as a protest against social traumas, making the private act of body grooming a public spectacle of resilience and reclamation. Each stroke removes not only hair but symbolic layers of imposed identity, exposing the raw impact of collective injustices on the individual psyche and body. The ritual speaks to the wear of societal scars, transforming the act of shaving into a visceral shedding of past burdens, laying bare the tension between personal identity and external pressures.

Image: Andrew AB

SPILL YER TEA #1 was supported by