Sweætshops® (alternatively stylised as SWEXTSHOPS)
is a multidisciplinary artist and multi-instrumentalist. Their moniker a
portmanteau of sweatshops and sweetshops representing the brutal
contradiction of exploitation and instant-gratification in the lottery of
economic circumstance. Their practice is centred on presenting
works as esoteric products to create intense absurdist allegories
around nameless social undercurrents and phenomena in the 21st
century. Creating work from the waste of consumerism and pop
culture using different configurations of live-art, sound, public
disruption, AI, film 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 work as Sawney is currenty cited in the V&A's ongoing Tartan exhibition.
A complete CV is available here.
Contact can be made here.
