Sweætshops®                                  (sweXtshops) is a multi-personality enterprise from the birthplace of the industrial revolution.
Their practice is centred around revealing the sweetshops/sweatshops yin-yang of global consumption and exploitation. 
Sweætshops® ethos is rooted in reappropriating the 24/7 bombardment of pop culture media, mass-produced items and digital trends.

                                        As above, so below...

Universally familiar “low-brow” symbols are repurposed into new magical frameworks to reveal “high-concepts”. Windows to extract insight and optimize systemic awareness of intersecting societal ills and hidden power structures we lack terminology for and struggle to address. Primarily working across performance, sound, audiovisual production and participatory conceptual research. Often in participation with disciplines from wider cultural backgrounds; from Highland dancers to Elvis impersonators to cybersecurity programmers. 

                                                                         Key performance initiatives... 

Projects operate as different personas and services: being simultaneously legally married and divorced for the Brexit deadline in an alchemical ceremony; haunting the X-Factor auditions as a humiliated former contestant; matinee shows about fakes news for 0-5 year olds; releasing 2 minutes of poppy factory noise for the Armistice Day centenary; recording and remixing the public’s recollections of 9/11; a talent agency as a religious cult. Consumerism, nationalism, media, tech and the 21st century overload are processed through an aural and bodily conveyor line.

                                                                                                                     Annual reviews...

Variously described as “the undeniable energy of a high doom, coupled with whipping wit, strafing satire, multimodal knowledge, and seemingly insuperable courage” (Phasmid Press) and “either a whole load of nonsense pretending to be art or performance art at its best” (The Write Angle). Their work has been showcased internationally and has included commissions with the Creative Scotland, Nongyuan Culture, National Theatre of Scotland, Take Me Somewhere Somewhere, the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival and Hidden Door Festival. Notable achievements include the //BUZZCUT// Emerging Artist Award, the Young Spirit of Europe Award (Palic European Film Festival), citations in the V&A’s TARTAN exhibition, and a Sonic Arts Master’s degree earned without a previous Bachelors.

                                                                           Mass production mass...

Outside more traditional arts outlets we also release albums, films, research papers, books and have also composed scores for other artist’s works and exhibitions. Their work has also crossed over into several mainstream channels, our work @headofthesecretwealth being picked up by the social media pop-culture channel The Hook, and our performance film Social Imagineering going viral being the first live depiction of Mickey Mouse following the character's entry into the public domain.


                                          Under development...

2026:
 

• a residency and exhibition with NY20+ in Chengdu, China
   

• our first performances on mainland Europe and Asia
   

• the culmination of our multiyear longform performance project and concept album on the mechanics of iconization: imperson
   

• a residency with Take Me Somewhere to develop PARTY a new hybrid virtual-theatre work, hosted between the XR Lab at the University of Glasgow and Strange Field.
   

• an immersive experimental residency Prove Your Human with the Live Art Development Agency, Art Gene and Lancaster Arts they will be hosting for six selected artists from across the United Kingdom.

Contact can be made here.

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