Julia Bardsley

Bardsley was a founder member of dereck dereck Productions; other stage performances in the 1980s included Marie-Christine in Ardèle, Where the Rainbow Ends, Gaudette at the Almeida Theatre (where she won the Time Out award for direction), and Too Clever by Half and A Flea in Her Ear (Antoinette Plucheux) at the Old Vic. She was also the assistant producer for A Night at the Chinese Opera with Kent Opera.Theatre programme for A Flea In Her Ear by Georges Feydeau, August 1989, cast biographies.

She began her career in theatre directing, writing and adapting works for the stage,{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Dominic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RWgWDAAAQBAJ&q=Improvements+on+Nature:+a+Double+Act+julia+bardsley&pg=PA146|title=Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK|date=2016-04-29|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-90743-4|location=|pages=146|language=en}} and was joint artistic director of the Leicester Haymarket & Young Vic Theatres (1991-4).{{Cite news|author=Guardian Staff|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/oct/13/artsfeatures2|title=Now you see them|date=1999-10-13|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University in 2007.{{Cite web|url=https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sed/staff/bardsleyj.html|title=Bardsley, J - School of English and Drama|website=www.qmul.ac.uk|access-date=2020-03-21}} Bardsley lectures at Queen Mary, University of London, and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.{{Cite web|url=https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/people/julia-bardsley|title=Julia Bardsley|last=Martins|first=Central Saint|date=2018-06-20|website=Central Saint Martins|language=en|access-date=2020-03-21}} Her work has become known for its experimental use of character, solo performance, and elaborate video and set work in a performance art/visual art context.{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Dominic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RWgWDAAAQBAJ&q=Improvements+on+Nature:+a+Double+Act+julia+bardsley&pg=PA146|title=Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK|date=2016-04-29|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-90743-4|location=|pages=141|language=en}}

Bardsley's work is significant in its disruption of traditional understandings of theatre;{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Dominic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-sTCwAAQBAJ&q=julia+bardsley|title=The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art|date=2015-07-31|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-1-137-32222-7|location=|pages=219|language=en}} her hybrid practice first developed in collaboration with designer Aldona Cunningham in the 1990s through their innovative work on Hamlet at the Young Vic, which in turn led to a five-year long creation process combining theatre, performance and photography, resulting in the work 12/Stages/3 (a Memory Theatre) as part of the British Festival of Visual Theatre in 1999.{{Cite news|author=Guardian Staff|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/oct/13/artsfeatures2|title=Now you see them|date=1999-10-13|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-21|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}

From the late 1990s onwards her film and video works have been selected for film festivals internationally, {{Cite web|url=https://artfacts.net/exhibition/9e-biennale-de-l%27image-en-mouvement/57477|title=9e Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement {{!}} Exhibition|last=ArtFacts|website=ArtFacts|language=en|access-date=2020-03-21}} collected and represented in collections such as Lux Artists Films{{Cite web|url=https://lux.org.uk/work/snow|title=Snow|website=LUX|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-03-21}} and the University of the Arts British Artists' Film and Video Study Collection.{{Cite web|url=http://collections.arts.ac.uk/search/julia%20bardsley?filter=department:British%20Artists%27%20Film%20and%20Video%20Study%20Collection|title=Results – Search Objects – UAL|website=collections.arts.ac.uk|access-date=2020-03-21}} She has also created video art work for theatre productions including An Ocean of Rain, at the Almeida Theatre, London, 2008,{{Cite web|url=https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/an-ocean-of-rain/10-jul-2008-13-jul-2008|title=An Ocean of Rain|website=Almeida Theatre|language=en|access-date=2020-03-21}} and Suenos composed by Simon Holt,{{Cite journal|last=Wheatley|first=John|date=2008|title=London, Queen Elizabeth Hall: Simon Holt's 'Sueňos'|journal=Tempo|volume=62|issue=244|pages=35|jstor=40072789|issn=0040-2982}} premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in 2007 .{{Cite book|last=Charlton|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7Q4DwAAQBAJ&q=London+Sinfonietta+Fischer+%22julia+bardsley%22&pg=PR10|title=The Music of Simon Holt|date=2017|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=978-1-78327-223-5|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/performances/search/composer/714/|title=Performances - Wise Music Classical|website=www.wisemusicclassical.com|access-date=2020-03-21}}

Presented in London, Glasgow, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Belgium, and Italy.{{Cite web|url=https://theatreanddance.britishcouncil.org/artists-and-companies/j/julia-bardsley/|title=Julia Bardsley|website=Theatre and Dance|language=en|access-date=2020-03-22}} The three parts of which are:

• Trans Acts used religious imagery, combining video, installation and performance, premiered at The National Review of Live Art (2006),{{Cite journal|last=Klein|first=Jennie|s2cid=57562299|date=2006|title=Genre-Bending Performance: The National Review of Live Art Glasgow, Scotland|journal=PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art|volume=28|issue=1|pages=58–66|doi=10.1162/152028106775329688|jstor=4139998|issn=1520-281X}} and went on to show at Shunt, London (2007){{Cite news|last=Gardner|first=Lyn|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/apr/13/theatre1|title=Trans-Acts/Untitled (Syncope), Shunt, London|date=2007-04-13|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-03-22|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}
• Almost the Same (feral rehearsals for violent acts of culture) a performance in three sections titled Nigredo, Rubedo and Albedo{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Dominic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RWgWDAAAQBAJ&q=Improvements+on+Nature:+a+Double+Act+julia+bardsley&pg=PA146|title=Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK|date=2016-04-29|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-90743-4|location=|pages=150|language=en}}
• Aftermaths: A Tear in the Meat of Vision (2009) Commissioned by the SPILL International Festival of Performance{{Citation|last=Company|first=Pacitti|title=Aftermaths: A Tear In The Meat Of Vision Julia Bardsley|date=2013-08-21|url=https://vimeo.com/72831818|access-date=2020-03-22}} uses the character of a cowboy evangelist to evoke apocalyptic and catastrophic visions of a world in chaos.{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Dominic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-sTCwAAQBAJ&q=julia+bardsley|title=The Art of Living: An Oral History of Performance Art|date=2015-07-31|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-1-137-32222-7|location=|pages=220|language=en}}

Produced for Chelsea Theatre, Sacred Festival, Improvements on Nature: a Double Act explored themes of science using imagery of amputations. 'It's the science of Charles Darwin incubated by the traumatised imagination of Mary Shelley.'Programme, Sacred Festival, 2009, Chelsea Theatre, London, 10 November

A modular ensemble piece, the meta_Family, presented in Teresina & Rio, Brazil & Outside AiR - QMUL, London. In 2012 editions of the project were presented at Trouble#8 Festival, Brussels & City of Women Festival, Ljubljana.{{Cite web|url=https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sed/staff/bardsleyj.html|title=Profile|last=Bardsley|first=Julia|date=2020-03-20|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}

A performance project inspired by the Medea myth; drawing on themes of sexuality, eroticism and electricity.{{Cite book|last=Laera|first=Margherita|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P91gBwAAQBAJ&q=medea+dark+matter+events&pg=PA111|title=Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat|date=2014-10-23|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-4081-8472-1|location=|pages=111|language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book|last=Glendinning, Hugo |title=Artsadmin 30 |date=2009|publisher=Artsadmin|isbn=978-0-9524337-6-7|location=London|oclc=609533968}}
• Johnson, Dominic (2016) Critical Live Art: Contemporary Histories of Performance in the UK {{ISBN|9781134907434}}
• {{Citation|last=Johnson|first=Dominic|date=2015|title=The Art of Living|pages=219–236|chapter=The Skin of the Theatre: An Interview with Julia Bardsley|publisher=Macmillan Education UK|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-32222-7_11|isbn=978-1-137-32220-3}}
• Johnson, Dominic, (2014) The Subtle Aggressors; a conversation with Julia Bardsley and Simon Vincenzi, in Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat, edited by Margherita Laera, Bloomsbury Publishing, {{ISBN|9781408184721}}
• {{Cite book|title=SPILL festival of performance: on agency|date=2010|publisher=Pacitti|author=Pacitti, Robert |author2=Ghelani, Sheila |isbn=978-0-9565447-0-4|location=Great Britain|oclc=751752908}}
• {{Cite book|author=Pacitti, Robert |author2=Walker, Lucy |title=Think Tank Workbook |date=2014|publisher=PACITTI Company|isbn=978-0-9565447-1-1 |oclc=975029157}}
• Staranje [Aging]. Silič, Melita. Ljubljana: City of Women - Association for the Promotion of Women in Culture. 2012. p. 100. {{ISBN|978-961-92182-6-6}}. OCLC 875322290.
• Bardsley, Julia, (2014) "'U' See the Image of her "i"', (London: BopBardsProjects: An Eye Eye Gym book).

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Category:1970 births

Category:British performance artists

Category:Living people