about us
Sweætshops® (alternatively stylised as sweXtshops)
is a multidisciplinary artist and multi-instrumentalist.
The term sweætshops, a portmanteau of sweat-shops
and sweet-shops, represents humanity's contradictory
participation as both the perpetuators and victims
of the current global economic system. Under the guise
of an impersonal corporate entity their practice creates
allegories from the waste of consumerism and pop
culture to highlight social undercurrents we lack a
terminology for and therefore struggle to address.
Blurring the distinctions between “high-brow” and “low-
brow” culture, authenticity and artifice and truth and
falsity using different configurations of live-art, sound,
music, disruption, film, AI and audience participation.
From creating shows about fake news for 0-5 year olds to attending the X-Factor auditions as the blood-vomiting ghost of a humiliated contestant, gathering electromagnetic frequencies from remembrance poppy factories to recording public recollections of 9/11, releasing a self-help tape to accompanying apocalyptic pamphlets. Consumerism, nationalism, media, technology - misinformation overload is processed through our aural conveyor line, bloody and shrink-wrapped to create new configurations of ceremonial muzak and mystery shopper plays.
Variously described as “performance art at its best” (The Write Angle) and “varicoloured and raw…the undeniable energy of a high doom” (Phasmid Press). Their work has been selected by wide arrange of organisations and festivals including the National Theatre of Scotland, Hidden Door Festival, Radiophrenia Festival, the Scottish Queer International FIlm Festival and Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival amongst others. They have been the recipient of the //BUZZCUT// Emerging Live Artist award and selected for Palić European Film Festival's Young Spirit of Europe. Their ongoing work as Sawney was cited in the V&A Dundee's 2023-2024 TARTAN exhibition and they have created soundworks for various films and performances including the aforementioned exhibition’s audioguide.
Contact can be made here.
