Belladonna Paloma

I make work inhabited by toilet gods, crossroads, boglands, and necromancy, percolating British folklore through painting and poetry involved with desire, grief, and excess. 

Collaboration is a key part of my practice. There is a relationship between collaboration, divination and necromancy, for me: all require listening, patience, and care.

Working with the artist Uma Breakdown, we make computer games and text exploring the divine providence of trans femme existence. These have recently been presented and published by Container Magazine, Overkill Festival (NL), and Almanac Journal of Trans Poetics. We use randomising game mechanics as a means of divinatory storytelling.

Working with Rabindranath X Bhose and Oren Shoesmith, we devise immersive performances exploring the connections between bog bodies, disability and transness. We recently produced a summer solstice performance for Glasgow International 2024, at a protected peatbog, borne of research into the queer histories of local religious communities and their use of peat from the site. The performance featured banners (installed around the site of the peatbog) and costumes dyed with local detritus.