Public Selfcare System is a one-to-one performance, direct action, a tandem jump into the unknown, and a masterclass in the radical act of stopping.

“thank you for making such clear-sighted, gentle, insistent work” – audience member

Public Selfcare System is drawn from Rhiannon’s lived experience of chronic debilitating conditions:

“I am an expert at resting in public thanks to a condition that sometimes forces me to lie down wherever I happen to be, and stay there until I am well enough to get up again.  We may all one day have to learn to stop in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day, and rest. Get ahead of the curve, get your training in now.

Come with me to a place you may have seen, walked past, but never been to. We are going to lie down and have a rest: I am going to look out for you and look after you. You have a right to be here, you have a right to do this. We can do it together.”

article by Rhiannon for Exeunt Magazine 

 

image courtesy of Julia Bauer

Public Selfcare System was developed with financial support from Arts Council England, and has been shown at festivals including:

  • ANTI Contemporary Art Festival in Kuopio Finland
  • Dublin Live Art Festival
  • SPILL Festival in Ipswich
  • Compass Festival in Leeds
  • Buzzcut in Glasgow
  • Tempting Failure in Croydon
  • Greenwich Docklands International Festival Hub in London

The project has also been presented in wider participatory modes including:

  • as a professional development workshop for artists with long term disabling conditions ‘DIY Public Selfcare System’ with The Live Art Development Agency and DADAFest
  • as a textile work developed through drop-in craft and discussion sessions at Waltham Forest Migrant Action
  • as an interior design concept for the first permanent Chill Out space in a theatre, at Battersea Arts Centre in London
  • as a screenprinted textile exhibition in civic spaces in Kuopio including libraries, cafes, and city buildings 
  • as an audio meditation for Wellcome Collection’s podcast Tranquillity in the City, and Unlimited’s Art Walk in Wakefield.