Watch a recording of A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep with Neil Bartlett.
Bartlett’s piece was acclaimed as one of the defining queer performances of the decade when he originally created it at the height of the first wave of the British AIDS epidemic in 1987. To celebrate the inclusion of Simeon Solomon’s work in the Queer British Art 1861-1967 exhibition, Bartlett revives the piece for one night only, performing it amidst the masterpieces of the nineteenth century gallery of Tate Britain.
The performance is followed by a discussion about the shifting histories of queer art, performance and culture between Bartlett and Dominic Johnson, who is a writer about live art histories, and a Reader in Performance and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London.
Watch a recording of the discussion.
In collaboration with the Live Art Development Agency (LADA).
Biographies
Neil Bartlett is an author, theatre director and performer whose recent work includes projects with Artangel, LIFT and the Brighton, Manchester, Holland and Edinburgh International Festivals.
He was a founder member of GLORIA, with whom he created A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, Sarrasine and The Seven Sacraments of Nicolas Poussin. From 1994 to 2005 he was Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith, and his more recent work includes theatre and performance projects with Artangel, Duckie, the National Theatre, LIFT and the Brighton, Manchester, Aldeburgh, Holland and Edinburgh International Festivals. He is also a novelist; his fifth novel, The Disappearance Boy, was published by Bloomsbury.
Dominic Johnson is Reader in Performance and Visual Culture in the School of English and Drama, at Queen Mary University of London. He is the author of Glorious Catastrophe: Jack Smith, Performance and Visual Culture (2012); Theatre & the Visual (2012); and The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art (2015). He is the editor of five books, including most recently Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey (2013); and (with Deirdre Heddon) It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells (2016). He is an Editor of the journal Contemporary Theatre Review; and a member of the Board of Directors of the Live Art Development Agency.
This event has been provided by Tate Gallery on behalf of Tate Enterprises LTD.