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Frances Barrett

A young woman in a leather jacket kneels on a plywood platform, and creates a complex written diagram with white chalk on a blackboard. The diagram includes the text, “Curator, Emma Pike, A performance of care for 12 hours, Curator caring for artist.” A second woman in a winter coat stands on the plywood platform watching.

A young woman in a leather jacket, smiling, inside an old, open industrial buildingz.

A young woman in a leather jacket, blindfolded, wearing noise-cancelling headphones inside an open industrial building. The woman is walking, with her hand placed on the shoulder of a second young woman.

A young woman stands on a plywood platform, and creates a written diagram with white chalk on a blackboard. The blackboard is partly covered with large, messy white strokes and drips. The diagram includes the text, “Can we do something more disturbing? Marina, 2015.”

A complex diagram, written with white chalk on a blackboard. The diagram includes the text, “Curator, Emma Pike, A performance of care for 12 hours, Curator caring for artist. Predictive Care. Work and Productivity. Rules of Exchange. ”

Frances Barrett

born 1983 on Gadigal land, Sydney, Australia
lives and works in Sydney, Australia

Frances Barrett was a participating artist in the Australian Artists' Residency Program as part of Marina Abramović: In Residence, 2015.

Explore the residency

Frances Barrett is a Sydney-based artist whose practice explores performance through symbolic and direct action. Barrett’s work is informed by queer and feminist methodologies and recent projects have taken the form of body-based live actions, endurance performance and sonic experimentation. Since 2005 Barrett has worked as part of the performance and video collective Brown Council whose work interrogates modes of collaboration and the history of feminist art practices. From 2009-13 Barrett was Co-Director of Serial Space, a space that was dedicated to supporting and presenting live and experimental art forms. In 2014, she presented work as part of Day for Night at Performance Space (Sydney), SafARI (Sydney), Tiny Stadiums Festival (Sydney) and Restaging Restaging at Alaska (Sydney). In 2015 she will be performing work at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney) and Australian Experimental Art Foundation (Adelaide), while also curating Haunting at Firstdraft (Sydney). She is currently Curator of Contemporary Performance at Campbelltown Arts Centre and host of FBI Radio arts show, Canvas.