Francess Gannon

Profile

I graduated from Liverpool Hope University in 2016, where I earned a First-Class honours degree in Creative and Performing Arts and later gained a Distinction in my MA by Creative Practice in 2018. I have since performed one to one performance installations (Talking Stalls) in events across Liverpool, including Liverpool Light Night 2018, and Angel Field Festival 2019.

I began studying Practice as Research at Leeds in 2022, exploring a walking performance praxis in relation to public toilet sites. I later dropped the practice element of the research to study a critical analysis of a variety of performances and installations that address toilet politics instead.

The research aims to analyse a variety of art practices which include performance intervention, theatre monologue, art installation, one to one performance, burlesque, edible installation, ready-mades, cruise-maze and graffiti art. These practices were performed, staged and installed in the UK/US from the early 2000s onwards.

The research utilises a queer feminist lens to analyse the performance of women’s, transgender and queer bodies. The theoretical landscape of this research is influenced by Michael Foucault’s theories on Heterotopia mainly his theorisation of the body-in-crisis. I employ this alongside Sara Ahmed’s theorisation of queer-use to reveal how bodies that are most impacted by toilet politics misuse space, props, and bodies to disrupt the status quo.

Research interests

• Contemporary performance
• Political performance
• Installation art
• Queer feminism
• Critical analysis

Qualifications

• MA by Creative Practice (Distinction)
• BA with Honours in Creative and Performing Arts (First Class)