Studio Holders

PERFORMANCE, PRO-WRESTLING & DRAG

Ash Lawless: by day an NHS nurse and by night a professional wrestler, drag king and performance artist. They use wrestling on cabaret and digital stages to make satirical, political and queer performance. Whilst counterbalancing the intensity of their job with the silliness of their art, they carry that tension through to their process, juxtaposing potent messages with ridiculous and camp. By framing wrestling in a Live Art context they politicise violence in a literal call to action whilst contradicting it with an irreverent tone.

PERFORMANCE, INSTALLATION & SCULPTURE

The Grief Series is a sequence of seven projects by Leeds-based artist Ellie Harrison. Ellie is a performance maker and artist living in Leeds and working internationally. She creates a range of solo and collaborative devised performance work for studios, galleries, found and public spaces. Participation is at the heart of all of her work as a performer, facilitator and mentor of young people. Her work is often characterised by a playful and provocative approach to difficult topics, encouraging audiences to make decisions and participate.

THEATRE DESIGNER & BUILDER

Matt Sykes-Hoban is a set & prop designer and maker of over 20 years standing in the industry. He has an extensive CV of scenic design credits working on a wide variety of projects ranging from, traditional box sets, dance performance, mid-scale touring productions, TIE, puppetry, festival work, outdoor promenade performance and multi-media projects. He works with many companies local to Yorkshire, nationally and further afield.

WRITER, RESEARCHER & PERFORMER

Phoenix Andrews writes theatre and non-fiction, performs weird conceptual drag and makes things out of leather. They are interested in internet cultures, telly, civil rights, art, performing, comedy and being more human. They like chips, music, art and culture. They are disabled, trans and bisexual and often filthy.

PERFORMACE ARTIST

Nicky works as an artist individually and collaboratively on projects or in collectives.

They create safe environments in private, public or art spaces in order to facilitate conversations and storytelling. These spaces are developed linked to subjects and material treated in projects, whO can be physical spaces or life art. In fixed or manipulated framework if it is on screen as final result, for example as video or installation work. Their working process combines a variety of media including text, sound, and visual material – to produce performances, sound pieces, or videos.

SEAMSTRESS & NOISEMAKER

Liza Violet is a seasoned seamstress with 19 years of experience, including the study of pattern-cutting at London College of Fashion. Her career spans; collaborations with artistic studios like New Substance and Lord Whitney, large-scale productions such as Leeds 2023 and West Yorkshire Playhouse, and costume designs for musicians such as Public Service Broadcasting and Doja Cat.

Liza's multidimensional expertise includes a degree in Audio System Design and she has spent years writing and performing music. Current musical involvements include TRAAMS, Drum Wife, and Grift Work.