Elly Clarke
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I am an artist interested in the performance and the burden (‘the drag’) of the physical body in an increasingly digitally mediated world, as well as the snap-to-grid of templates. I work with analogue and digital photography, video, music, and community-based projects – and #Sergina, a border-straddling, multi-bodied drag queen who, across one body and several, sings and performs songs online and offline about love, lust and loneliness in the mesh of hyper-dis/connection. In this format, #Sergina (plural) has performed in venues of all persuasions in the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA. Over the past 10 years, #Sergina has been embodied and sculputed by Vladimir Bjelicic, Raul de Nieves, Katy Pendlebury, Thomas Doherty, Liz Rosenfeld, Matt Miwa, Kaajel Patel and Shiva Raichandani.
I have exhibited my photographic, audio and performance work internationally, including at Galerie Wedding, Berlin; Kiasma, Helsinki; Franklin Furnace, New York; The Other Gallery, Banff, Canada and Techno Park Studios, Melbourne, and have taught at insitutions that include Munich Akademie den Bildene Kunste; Birmingham City University; Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne; Coventry University; Central School of Speech and Drama in London and, currently, on the MFA programme at Goldsmiths.
From 2008-13 I ran Clarke Gallery out of my 2-room apartment in Berlin. I am now dragging my way through a PhD at Goldsmiths, looking at the drag of physicality in the digital age alongside a study of early netcast performances commissioned and presented by Franklin Furnace in New York, 1998-2000.
EDUCATION
2019 - ongoing PhD Candidate in Art at Goldsmiths. PhD title: Is My Body Out of Date? The Drag of Physicality in the Digital Age. Supervisors: Vikki Chalklin and Sarah Kember.
2002-3 MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design, London.
2001-2 MA Curating Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London (first year).
1995-8 First Class Degree in History of Art BA (Hons) University of Leeds.
RESIDENCIES & TRAINING:
2024 Banff Summer Artist in Residence
The Banff Centre, Canada
2023 IXDM Fellow at Critcial Media Lab, Basel, Switzerland, with Clareese Hill, including some teaching on the Experimental Design MA. Invited by Professor Helen Pritchard.
2022 Rendering Research, PhD workshops for transmediale at ERG in Brussels in assocation with the Centre for the Networked Image at London Southbank University and Aarhus University (together with Clareese Hil.)
2021 Sexuality Summer School, IPak Centar, Belgrad (online)
2021 Down Dwars Delà at Bidston Observatory - run by Constant
2020 VLTV, Vivid Projects, Birmingham - micro residency & film commission
2014 Distributed Intimacies, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada (residency)
2010 Goldrausch Kunstlerinnen Projekt IT, Berlin
2007 Future of Idea Art, Banff Centre, Canada (residency)
2007-9 Four Corners Professional Development for Photographers, London
SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS / COMMISSIONS
2023 #Sergina's Stimulatingly Suggestive Song-Stuffed Seminar cum Webinar - Episode 2, at The Photographer's Gallery
2023 Dragging the Archive - a personal re:encounter with Franklin Furnace's cyber beginnings by Elly Clarke, Pratt Institute Libraries, Brooklyn, New York: https://franklinfurnace.org/dragging-the-archive/
2022 #Sergina's Desperately Delicious Dirty Data Delivery, Spill Think Tank, Ipswich
2021 Old Work and New, Hamilton MAS, Felixstowe, Suffolk
2020 #Sergina at The Knot, Ottawa, Canada (online, interactive, participatory.)
2020 Wandsworth Words, Commissioned by Wandsworth Borough of London
2019 How are you? #Sergina's Participatory Soap Opera about Wrestling with Wellbeing in the Digital Age, ONCA, Brighton - (solo #Sergina performance produced & performed with Vladimir Bjelicic)
2018 Queer Encounters King’s Cross
Everyman Cinema King’s Cross and at Fringe! Film Festival
27-minute single-shot film and 10 ‘Encounters’ about queer memories of
King’s Cross in the 1980s, 90s and 00s.
2018 A Class(y) Lecture by Elly Clarke, Galerie Wedding, Berlin
Solo lecture performance leading to is based on The George Richmond
Portrait Project and themes of class, expectation, privilege and belonging.
2016 Darlings, I'm Ready for my Close Up - Fabrica Gallery with Brighton Digital Festival
2012 Change Settings, Techno Park Studios, Melbourne, Australia
2011 Moscow-Beijing (solo screening), Milton Keynes Gallery,
2010 Moscow-Beijing, Centre for Endless Progress, Berlin
2009 Mobility and Creativity: Narrative, Representation and Performance, University of Surrey, Guildford
2009 Time & Place, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, London
2007 Moscow-Beijing, Globe Hub, North Shields, Newcastle, UK
2006 Air Time-Spaces, Centre for Mobility Research, Lancaster University
2006 Moscow-Beijing, Other Gallery, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada
2003 The Broadway House Photo Project, Seven Seven, London Fields
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS / PERFORMANCE NIGHTS
2022 Mixed Bag, group show by the Goldsmiths PhD Art Cohort, St James Hatcham Building, London
2022 Proxy Bodies 2.0, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, USA. Part 2 of exhibition I curated that began at Hamilton MAS in Felixstowe. This edition was curated by Galina Shevchenko.
2021 #Sergina's Stimulatingly Sexy Short Seminar about Data Collection, Bar Wotever, Royal Vauxhall Tavern. With Orrow Bell and Roux Malherbe as Handsome Boys.
2021 #SERGINA’s Stimulatingly Sexy Song Stuffed Seminar cum Webinar
For Qwe’re London at Matchstick Piehouse Theatre, Deptford, London – performed simultaneously online (via Zoom) and offline (in person).
2018-21 IS MY BODY OUT OF DATE? THE DRAG OF PHYSICALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE.
Networked performances connected via Skype or Zoom: with Vladimir Bjelicic via Skype at
TRANSMEDIALE’s panel HARD FEELINGS: A CONVERSATION ON COMPUTATION & AFFECT in January 2018; at CHASE ENCOUNTERS at the Barbican London in November 2018; with Bon Mott & Sean Miles at EMBODIED KNOWLEDGE conference at Deacon University, Naarm/Melbourne, June 2019; with Stephanie Ballantine at IPAK’S SEXUALITY SUMMER SCHOOL, Belgrade, August
2020 LOUD + CLEAR
ONCA Gallery, Brighton – curated by Nadia Buyse
Live performance and video at group exhibition
2017 Phone Me Don’t Write
SOHO20 Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York
Live Skype performance by #Sergina from a sofa in Tottenham to opening
night of LINQOX CRISS ON THE RIVER ILISSUS. Curated by Amanda T Pohan.
2015-16 #Sergina’s Stimulatingly Sexy Simultaneous Simulation of Herself,
as part of exhibition Right Here / Right Now at The Lowry, Salford Quays
Commission for simultaneous online/offline networked performance that
took place at the Lowry, Salford Quays, with simultaneous performers
performing from and in The Island in Bristol, Monster Ronson’s Ichiban
Kareoke in Berlin, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn & in Belgrade.
Curator: Karen Newman.
2016 AN ORGY OF ALGORITHMS AND OTHER DESIRES AND DISTRACTIONS Mu¨nchen Akademie der Bildenden Ku¨nste, Networked Performance Lecture with Vladimir Bjelicic via Skype
2015 Screening of three #Sergina music videos at FRINGE! Festival in London
2015 Phone Me, Don’t Write & Other Tales of Sex and Love in the Digital Age mit #Sergina, Kunstquartier Bethanien - performance
2015 Screening of three Sergina films at Scottish Queer International Film Festival & performance
2015 Camden Encounters, The Roundhouse & online
Year-long commission Camden Council as part of #Camden50 to produce a series of artistic photo/audio/video encounters with 21 residents of the Borough of Camden. Curator: Charlie Levine. https://camden50.co.uk/projects/camden
2015 Sergina at Painted Ladies, The Club, Neukoelln, Berlin: live performance
2015 Sergina at Pansy’s Drag Race, Sudblock, Berlin (performance)
2014 Inheritance / act_out, GSL Projekt, Berlin (artist & curator)
2014 Instantaneous Culture by Sergina at The Shag, Gallery 223, London. Live performance
2014 Sex Without Bodies, Temporary Agency, Queens, New York
2014 The Moving Image Project, Baroda; Christchurch, London; New York.
2014 Delineator, A3 Project Space, Birmingham
2013 On Looking, Galapagos Kunsthalle, DUMBO, New York. Curated by Daniel Kingery
2013 Half Crowns in their Petticoats, Birmingham as part of Thrift Radiates Happiness, Birmingham Municipal Bank. Curated by Charlie Levine
Site-specific audio commission & installation of interviews with people who
used to work for Birmingham’s Municipal Bank in the bank's former HQ building.
http://ellyclarke.com/index.php?/news/half-crowns-in-their-petticoats/
2012-3 Band/Ties, ARTicle gallery, BIAD, Birmingham & WIP Konsthall, Stockholm
2012 Absence/Presence, Hotel Paravant at Tete, Berlin. Curated by Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez.
2011 Let the Rhythm Hit ‘Em, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin
2010 Glass Crash Feeling - Goldrausch 2010, Galerie September, Berlin
2009 The End.. And? The Latin Collector / Frederico Sevres, New York
2008 NeMe: In Transition: Russia 2008, Museum of Fine Arts, Ekaterinburg & NCCA, Moscow
2008 Filmobile, London Gallery West, University of Westminster, London
2007 The Journey/Moscow to Beijing, London Gallery West. Two-person show with Joram ten Brink
2006 Capturing the Moving Mind, Kiasma Museum, Helsinki
2005-6 All for Show, UK video works, Multiple venues internationally. Curated by Lee Campbell.
2005 Mobility & Hospitality: The ethics of social relations in a mobile world. Lancaster University.
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2023 Dragging the Archive - a personal re:encounter with Franklin Furnace's Cyber Beginnings by Elly Clarke, Pratt Institute Libraries
2021 Proxy Bodies (artist & curator), Hamilton MAS, Felixstowe. Group exhibition curated as part of a 3 month PhD placement at Hamilton MAS with artists Clareese Hill, Galina Shevchenko, Dominique Savitri Bonarjee, Bryony Graham and a live sonic response by Loula Yorke. Supported by CHASE Doctoral Training Programme. In 2022 this exhibition was re-framed and re-curated by Galina Shevchenko and shown at Chicago Art Department.
2014 Inheritance / Act_Out (artist & curator)
GSL Projekt, Berlin - 3 person show with Kerstin Hoenit & Lisa Jugert
2012-13 FRAME_birmingham. Arts Council funded, mac birmingham & Own Art supported curatorial project by Elly Clarke, which saw unique works by 41 local & international artists installed & for sale in 31 different venues across the city of Birmingham, from the Cathedral to a nail salon. Mirrored online.
2008-13 Clarke Gallery. Set up initially in Elly Clarke’s flat in Berlin, Clarke Gallery later brought exhibitions to other places via mobile exhibitions WUNDERKAMMER, The Mobility Project & FRAME_birmingham. Venues include Franklin Furnace, New York; mac Birmingham; Eastern Edge, St Johns, Canada; Galerie Suvi Lehtinen, Berlin; Meter Room, Coventry; The Old Joint Stock & TROVE in Birmingham.
PRINT / WEB
2021 Mixtape / Shuffle Play, (together with Clareese Hill). For Open Call as part of Theatre and Performance Journal.
2020 Is My Body Out of Date? The Drag of Physicality in the Digital Age, IDEA Journal
2020 An Orgy of Algorithms and Other Desires and Deviations, in ‘Hybrid Ecologies’
published by Diaphanes and The University of Chicago Press. Eds: Marietta Kestling, Maria Muhle, Jenny Nachigall, Susanne Witzgall.
2020 How are you? How are you feeling right now? Wrestling with Wellbeing when all the
world’s a screen, CHASE Feminist Network blog
2019 A conversation between Elly Clarke and Liv Fontaine, Sluice Magazine, Spring/Summer 2019
2015 Laughing Inverts – conversation with artist Lena Rosa Haendel in her monograph, Kehler publishers
2015 Camden Encounters for Camden Council (web based):
2015 Digital Remnants: Sex Without Bodies, GUTS Magazine, Canada
2014 Delineator, edited by Cathy Wade / A3 Project Space – text & images
2013 Thrift Radiates Happiness, catalogue produced to accompany exhibition in the Municipal Bank
2012 Connected Isolation/ Isolated Connectedness: Curated feature by Elly Clarke for Culturehall.com
2012 Change Settings: Beiiing. Review by Lisa Radford of solo show at Techno Park Studios
2012 4 page A4 guide to accompany FRAME_birmingham, with essay by Anna Canby Monk
2010 Alternative Funding Strategies by David Trigg, Rant 47, Axisweb
2010 24/7 Contact. Monograph catalogue produced by Goldrausch, Berlin. Essay by Erin Manns.
2009 Beautiful Triggers - review of Time & Place by Lee Campbell in ArtVehicle 44
2007 The Journey / Moscow to Beijing, Catalogue produced to accompany exhibition at LGW
2006 The Trans Siberian Photo Project by Elly Clarke (pdf), Framework, Issue 4/ Permanent Transience
AWARDS / GRANTS
2018-23 CHASE Doctoral Scholarship for my PhD at Goldsmiths
2014 Scholarship from The Banff Centre for Distributed Intimacies Residency
2014 ACE Grants for the Arts grant for The George Richmond Portrait Project (R&D)
2013 Scholarship from Aedas Architects for Thrift Radiates Happiness commission
2012 ACE Grants for the Arts grant for FRAME_birmingham
2011 ACE Grants for the Arts grant for Mobility Project at Meter Room
2010 The De Laszlo Foundation for The George Richmond Portrait Project?
2006 Scholarship from The Banff Centre for Future of Idea Art residency
2005 Grant from the Swedish School of Economics for Capturing the Moving Mind