Residency dates: Mon 14 - Fri 18 Jun 2021.
Varjack-Lowry is a collaboration between artists Paula Varjack and Chuck Blue Lowry; merging skills derived from careers in filmmaking, theatre-making, & participation. Chuck and Paula met whilst working on Magic Me’s Decorum, exploring unspoken rules of behaviour for modern women. Paula invited Chuck to work on All the Lights Are On, a site specific promenade performance sharing experiences of women who had been or were at risk for being incarcerated, with Chuck supporting with moving image and online campaign material for women’s charity Agenda. Following this collaboration, Varjack-Lowry was formed. Subsequently, they were chosen as one of six Barbican Open Lab 2019/20 artists and are also Associate Artists with The Pleasance. Their most recent work was with The Yard Theatre devising a short film online with a group of young people.
Combining devised theatre, videography & participation, I, Melania uses Melania Trump as an avatar of an ‘acceptably’ foreign woman. Varjack-Lowry will blur their personal narratives to share, obscure and question experiences of foreignness and dual heritage. I, Melania will be informed by an intergenerational group of female participants (spanning from school age to 55+) with their own relationship to being foreign. Over a series of digital workshops with these participants, Varjack-Lowry will create a piece of performance that responds to the question of whether it’s possible to be 'acceptably' foreign and female.
Find them online:
Paula Varjack: @PaulaVarjack (www.paulavarjack.com)
Chuck Blue Lowry: @ChuckBlueLowry (www.chuckbluelowry.com)
Tumblr for the project: https://imelania.tumblr.com/post/189186409799/i-melania