Quilla Constance

Allen graduated from the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, St John's College, University of Oxford{{cite web |date=17 February 2025|title=The Ruskin School of Art University of Oxford - Alumna Quilla Constance |url=https://www.rsa.ox.ac.uk/news/detail/alumna-quilla-constance/ |access-date=2 February 2025 |website=Ruskin School of Art University of Oxford}} with a BA (Hons) Fine Art in 2001 and earned an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2006.{{cite web |date=27 May 2015 |title=Symposium: (Dis) identifications |url=https://archive.ica.art/whats-on/symposium-dis-identifications |access-date=17 November 2018 |website=Institute of Contemporary Arts}} She later studied acting at Rose Bruford College.

Shortly after completing her master's degree, Allen created her Quilla Constance persona as an extension of the exoticised, androgynous punk-carnival aesthetic and malevolent demeanour explored in her earlier video and performance works and "to locate a point of agency within a hegemonic framework of white phallocentric order".{{cite web |last=Kheirkhah |first=Maria M. |date=26 March 2015 |title=Jennifer Allen PUKIJAM |url=https://www.198.org.uk/portfolio/pukijam/ |access-date=17 February 2021 |website=198 Contemporary Arts}} Constance subsequently began staging performances in clubs, theatres, art galleries, music venues, the street and mainstream television.

Quilla Constance (abbreviated to QC) stages interventions across an interdisciplinary practice of paintings, lectures, photographs, live performances, costumes and music videos. Her live performance work has been noted for its "unflinching physical narrative performed entirely through breath, posture and non-verbal sounds: panting like a dog, sex noises, then laughter, pure guttural anger, and back again".{{cite web |date=10 February 2020 |title=Confessions: Making a Performance of Yourself |url=https://jerwoodarts.org/exhibitionsandevents/events/confessions-making-a-performance-of-yourself/ |access-date=10 November 2018 |website=Jerwood Arts}}

Her faculty biography states that "QC over-identifies with an 'exotic' militant punk persona to interrogate category-driven capitalist networks, through staging and virally inserting her artistic practice within pop culture, traversing music venues, forging protests and entering art galleries in order to emulate and interrupt the operations of these cultural zones".

QC's varied art practice also frequently 'scrutinises food as a signifying system onto which social class and ethnic identities are mapped out, from fried chicken in cardboard take¬away boxes to tea in fine, bone china cups.' where she questions the limitations of categories, boundaries, and contexts to humorous and destabilising effect.

{{cite web |last=Lebovici |first=Elisabeth |date=12 July 2017 |title=Page 27, Read My QR:Quilla Constance and the Conceptualist Promise of Intelligibility |url=https://mediabank.vanabbemuseum.nl/vam/files/alexandria/publiciteit/folders/2017/brochure_conferentie_conceptualism.pdf |access-date=10 April 2024 |website=Van Abbe Museum}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x2SbDwAAQBAJ&dq=quilla+constance&pg=PA134 |title=A Companion to Feminist Art, Wiley-Blackwell, page 133-135 |isbn=9781118929155 |access-date=11 February 2021 |last1=Robinson |first1=Hilary |last2=Buszek |first2=Maria Elena |date=22 October 2019 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}

Allen's video and performance works have been exhibited internationally since 2003 and are held in the art collections of Anita and Poju Zabludowicz,{{cite web |date=10 April 2008 |title=Jennifer Allen Presents |url=http://www.zabludowiczcollection.com/events/view/jennifer-allen-presents |access-date=11 June 2015 |website=Zabludowicz Collection}} Roberts Institute of Art,{{cite web |title=David Roberts Art Foundation collections |url=https://www.therobertsinstituteofart.com/programme/projects/quilla-constance-working-lunch|access-date=12 April 2024}} and Goldsmiths College (Warden's).

In 2003, Allen was awarded British and Arts Council funding for her solo exhibition and artist's residency at BizArt Center, Shanghai, China through the ARTLINKART International Residency Programme.{{cite web |date=1 June 2003 |title=JENNIFER ALLEN (solo) |url=http://www.artlinkart.com/en/exhibition/overview/b6datCm |access-date=11 June 2015 |website=ArtLinkArt}}

In 2007, Allen guest curated a video screening at 176 London, Zabludowicz Collection. The event featured Allen's 2006 video work 'Happy Christmas Mom & Dad', a piece that sees Allen allegedly perform a seductive dance as a gift for her parents on Christmas Day.

In an interview with arts patron Shalini Passi, Constance stated that "My current professional name is Quilla Constance ... which is an art persona I've cultivated and deployed since 2009. My birth name is Jennifer Allen, and the name I operated under from 2001 to 2009"{{cite web |last=Passi |first=Shalini |date=16 March 2019 |title=Shalini Passi In Conversation with Quilla Constance |url=https://www.mashindia.com/in-the-studio/shalini-passi-in-conversation-with-quilla-constance/ |access-date=29 March 2022 |website=MASH India}}

In 2010, Constance staged a 'militant punk protest performance' outside the former Punk Soho nightclub in order to challenge the venue for cancelling a Quilla Constance punk performance in favour of a corporate booking. She later successfully prosecuted the club's promoter through Equity.{{cite web |date=30 May 2012 |title=Performer proves a contract needs to be fair (Page 6) |url=https://issuu.com/martinebrown/docs/equity_magazine_spring_2012 |access-date=17 November 2018 |website=Equity Magazine}}{{cite web |last=Chris |first=Tiki |date=30 June 2011 |title=In Pictures: Quilla Constance Protest Performance Outside Punk Soho |url=https://londonist.com/2011/06/in-pictures-quilla-contance-protest-performance-outside-punk-soho |access-date=18 November 2018 |website=Londonist}}

In 2011, the 80s synth-pop and New Romanticism artists Rusty Egan and Steve Strange invited Constance to perform at a reunion in the former Soho Blitz Club.{{cite web |date=8 January 2011 |title=Strange and Egan return to the Blitz to kick off the 20-tweens |url=http://shapersofthe80s.com/2011/01/08/2011-%E2%9E%A4-strange-and-egan-return-to-the-blitz-to-kick-off-the-20-tweens/ |access-date=10 April 2024 |website=Shapers of The 80s}} Later that year, she performed at Fierce! Festival, Birmingham alongside Cakes da Killa.{{cite web |title=Fierce Festival 2013: Launch!!! Friday 4 October |url=https://wearefierce.org/?s=Eva+meyer-Keller |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119012236/https://wearefierce.org/?s=Eva+meyer-Keller |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 November 2018 |access-date=18 November 2018}}

In 2015,{{cite web |title=Jennifer Allen 2015 Lottery Grant |url=http://gotlottery.uk/arts-council-england-jennifer-allen-2-474793 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116220117/http://gotlottery.uk/arts-council-england-jennifer-allen-2-474793 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 November 2018 |access-date=17 November 2018}} 2017{{cite web |title=Jennifer Allen 2017 Lottery Grant |url=http://gotlottery.uk/arts-council-england-jennifer-allen-2-514331 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116220442/http://gotlottery.uk/arts-council-england-jennifer-allen-2-514331 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 November 2018 |access-date=17 November 2018}} and 2019 {{cite web |date=3 December 2019 |title=Open Studio With Quilla Constance |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/tate-exchange/workshop/open-studio |access-date=8 December 2019 |website=Tate Modern}} Allen was awarded funding from Arts Council England in support of a series of Quilla Constance solo projects and exhibitions: 'Teasing Out Contingencies: Quilla Constance Open Studio' at Tate Modern,{{cite web |date=15 October 2024 |title=Open Studio With Quilla Constance |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/open-studio|website=Tate Modern}} Tate Exchange and The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum{{cite web |date=15 October 2024 |title= Teasing Out Contingencies |url=https://www.thehigginsbedford.org.uk/Exhibitions/Teasing_Out_Contingencies.aspx}} 'Transcending The Signified' at The Museum of Contemporary Art/ MOCA, London,{{cite web |title=Quilla Constance: Transcending-The-Signified-MOCA-London |url=https://www.moca.london/transcending-the-signified.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101201429/https://www.moca.london/transcending-the-signified.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 January 2020|access-date=12 April 2024}} which toured to the Old Fire Station Theatre, Oxford;{{cite web |date=3 August 2017 |title=Exhibition: Transcending The Signified|url=https://oldfirestation.org.uk/exhibitions/transcending-the-signified/ |access-date=9 September 2017 |website=Old Fire Station}} '#QC' at The Kendrew Barn, St John's College, Oxford{{cite web |date=24 March 2016 |title=Alumna Jennifer Allen returns to showcase 'exotic' and challenging exhibition |url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/383-12527/Quilla-Constance.html |access-date=23 April 2016 |website=St John's College}} and 'PUKIJAM' at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, curated by Maria Kheirkhah. PUKIJAM received additional support from The Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN); and Diversity Arts Forum In December 2017 Allen's artworks were discussed in a paper presented at the conference 'Black Artists and Modernism: Conceptualism – Intersectional Readings, International Framings' held at Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands.{{cite web|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9OUgICSLlI |title= Read My QR: Quilla Constance and the Conceptualist Promise of Intelligibility|website= YouTube|date= 15 December 2017| access-date=18 November 2018}}

In February 2018, Constance was selected by Bedford Creative Arts and live art organisation Artichoke (company) to lead women's art workshops in Bedford, and commissioned to produce a banner artwork with women of Bedfordshire to honour the suffragettes and the suffragists, and celebrate the centenary of women's right to vote. The banner featured in a major London procession PROCESSIONS (artwork) held on 10 June 2018. In a statement to the Associated Press, Constance said of the Suffragettes "They were really quite anarchic...They had to really fight. And we still have to fight...I think they're here today in spirit, and we're giving them high fives."{{cite news |last=Lawless |first=Jill |date=10 June 2018 |title=Suffragette cities: Centenary of women's vote marked in UK |url=https://apnews.com/a7533ee40e244e3bb170903700ca0b8c/Suffragette-cities:-Centenary-of-women%27s-vote-marked-in-UK |access-date=11 June 2018 |work=AP News}}

198 Contemporary Arts and Learning was the first gallery to screen Constance's arts council-commissioned video piece, PUKIJAM, which sees her 'perform a dystopian golliwog cakewalk, accompanied and interrupted by a montage of erotic media images, figurative objects and her mutant, sub-linguistic scat vocal set against a relentless electronic throb'. The exhibition also featured vibrant 'exotic' costumes adorning large, acrylic paint on canvas abstractions. 'These conspired with video works, inviting the viewer into a dialogue through which notions of cultural authenticity and the production of meaning were visibly contested'{{cite web |title=This is Goldsmiths: Six things to do this week |date=27 March 2015 |url=https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/this-is-goldsmiths-27-march/|access-date=12 April 2024}}

In July 2015, Constance was invited to screen her performance art video, PUKIJAM in the Kendrew Barn Gallery, St John's College, Oxford{{cite web |last=Hughes |first=Tim |date=31 March 2016 |title=Performance Artist Quilla Constance Challenges Taboo at St John's College Oxford |url=http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/14394850.Performance_artist_Quilla_Constance_challenges_taboo_at_St_John___s_College__Oxford/?ref=mrb&lp=14 |access-date=6 April 2016 |website=Oxford Mail}} for The 2000 Women Big Party. The event was held in celebration of the matriculation of the 2000th female to read for a degree at St John's College Oxford, and the appointment of Margaret Snowling, the first female president of the college in 450 years. St John's College, Oxford was an all-male college until 1979.

Constance has written articles for Transition Gallery (Garageland magazine) and The Rebel.{{cite web |date=7 December 2010 |title=Q & A with Quilla Constance |url=http://therebelmagazine.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/q-with-quilla-constance.html |access-date=11 June 2015 |website=The Rebel Magazine}} She also writes a quarterly punk-art gossip column, 'Quilla's Constant Catch-Up' for La Bouche Zine.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Quilla Constance appeared on the docuseries Rob & Romesh Vs (Art) on Sky One,{{cite web |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/rob_and_romesh_vs/episodes/3/1/| title=British Comedy Guide Rob & Romesh Vs Guest Cast Series 3 Episode 1| website=British Comedy Guide| access-date=11 February 2021}} where she invited presenter-comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan to experiment with performance art in her studio. Here she offered up "Hoops in Flutes" and "High Tea in PPE". The episode also featured Constance's single and video PR BLITZ, described in The Guardian as "brilliantly deranged punk of Quilla Constance’s PR Blitz), in which the artist sings salacious tabloid headlines against a junkyard backdrop".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/16/farty-paintings-sozzled-on-gin-vic-reeves-dada-art-and-comedy-silly-history|title= Farty paintings and getting sozzled on gin: a seriously silly history of art and comedy colliding|website= TheGuardian.com|date= 16 July 2020|access-date=11 February 2021|last1= Judah|first1= Hettie}}

During tier 2 lockdown, Constance also featured in 'How Limits Can Boost Your Creativity' for BBC IDEAS where she makes reference to her admiration for artist Faith Ringgold, and the positive activation of her own biracial, working class female identity within the historically sexist and elitist contemporary art world.{{cite web |last=Angel Sharp Media |date=4 September 2020 |title=How Limits Can Boost Creativity |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-limits-can-boost-your-creativity/p08qhyr1 |access-date=11 February 2021 |website=BBC IDEAS}}

• 2006 'Happy Christmas Mom & Dad' Performance/Video Artwork
• 2016 'Pukijam' Performance/Video Artwork
• 2016 '#QC_001' Performance/Video Artwork
• 2017 'Celsnakar' Painting{{cite book |url=https://www.moca.london/uploads/1/0/1/4/101463086/trascending_final_web.pdf |title=Transcending the Signified: Quilla Constance |isbn=978-0-9955554-1-9 |access-date=1 January 2020 |last1=Allen |first1=Jennifer |year=2017}}
• 2017 'Transcending The Signified' Quilla Constance live performance, MOCA London

• 2019 A Companion to Feminist Art, Hilary Robinson (editor), Maria Elena Buszek (editor)-Blackwell Wiley {{ISBN|9781118929155}}
• 2015 Garageland art, culture and ideas 'SEX' edition No. 18 (pages 15–19) 'Freud and Eros: Love, Lust, Longing and The Oedipus Complex: Jennifer Allen aka Quilla Constance visits The Freud Museum' edition #18 (pages 15–19)
• 2012 Equity magazine, spring 2012, page 11
• 2010 The Rebel 'Q&A With Quilla Constance'
• 2008 Saatchi Online 'Emerging Artist of The Week' Saatchi Art Online Magazine{{cite web |last=Neal |first=Jane |date=12 February 2007 |title=Emerging Artist of the Week: Jennifer Allen |url=http://magazine.saatchiart.com/articles/artnews/emerging_artist_of_the_week_je_2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610131017/http://magazine.saatchiart.com/articles/artnews/emerging_artist_of_the_week_je_2 |archive-date=10 June 2015 |access-date=11 June 2015 |website=Saatchi Art}}
• 2001 Bloomberg New Contemporaries Catalogue

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• {{IMDb name|7257120}}
• [https://twitter.com/quillaconstance?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Quilla Constance at the Royal Academy of Arts]

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century British women artists

Category:21st-century British painters

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art

Category:Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London

Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford

Category:British conceptual artists

Category:British women conceptual artists

Category:Painters from Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:Black British artists

Category:British feminist artists

Category:Alumni of Rose Bruford College

Category:British performance artists

Category:British postmodern artists

Category:Interdisciplinary artists

Category:British video artists

Category:1980 births