Tongue + Heart: The Outburst / Jerwood Queer Artists Programme will support queer artists living in Northern Ireland to develop their practice over 15-months. The artists receive mentoring, professional development and a new commission to be showcased at Outburst Queer Arts Festival, November 2023.
The selected artists are Phillip McCrilly, Maoilíosa Scott, TJ Tytler (aka Carl Hartt), and Thomas Wells. The programme will be shaped by the needs and vision of these four artists, in collaboration with the Outburst Arts creative team. It may include matching the artists with mentors, sharing ideas and works in development, or providing queer critique and tailored workshops.
Phillip McCrilly has spent several years working on solo projects and productions, often involving the transgressive and interdisciplinary possibilities of food, hospitality and education. He is now interested in ideas around outsourcing and involving others in the realisation of performed works, an area he will expand on through this programme.
Maoilíosa Scott is a performance poet who works primarily in the Irish language. Their work explores working class rural experience through a feminist and queer lens. They have recently been exploring ideas around scripted theatre forms, currently exploring queer ideas around the Cailleach (the Irish divine hag/witch) amongst other themes around tradition and contemporary experience.
TJ Tytler (aka Carl Hartt) is a performer who mixes the mediums of drag and boylesque to explore social issues close to their heart, including class, gender and sexuality. They will be exploring collaborative performance ideas and what it is to be a queer performer working in alternative spaces, working overall towards “Making Drag Queer Again”.
Thomas Wells often situates his work in the intimacy of domestic spaces, using layered imagery to elicit feelings of nostalgia. Much like the early 00’s trend of the deconstructed dessert, his aims in this programme are to focus on specific elements of the dinner party, layering images, sounds, text and action into a trifle like performance to facilitate a happening. His work through Tongue + Heart will pull on all strands of his practice to create a new performance work exploring themes of queer identity and heritage in Belfast.
Tongue + Heart is supported through Jerwood Developing Artists Fund, which provides grants for organisations to deliver sector-leading early-career artist development programmes in all art forms.
Find out more:
Read about Tongue + Heart, here.
Read about Jerwood Developing Artists Fund, here.
