Spontaneity Exercise

I was lucky enough recently to be asked by the fantastic visual artist and performer Justyna Scheuring to take part in her performance intervention Spontaneity Exercise at The Other Art Fair in London's Southbank. Below is a short edited extract of the 1 hour 40 min performance.

Spontaneity Exercise from Justyna Scheuring on Vimeo.

Just read this lovely review of my solo show I don't remember exactly when it happened.. by Missy Lorelei in the Skinny Magazine

I Don’t Remember When it Happened

Oranges, apples, strawberries and pineapples are not the only fruit, you know. On paper, this show shouldn’t work – anotheralcoholic chef? Happily, Katy Baird crushes clichés under her kitten heels: the woman’s a maniac.

Exploring the tangy relationship between food and sex in a way that would surely make Almodovar blush, Baird’s nympho lesbian chef is a steely-eyed presence, peppering her recipes with random bursts of psychotic violence. A plate of peanuts is the first to get it (with a rolling pin) as she calmly explains that peanuts are often used in the production of dynamite…CRASH!

After making a whisky sour with apples, which she then of course proceeds to down in one with a triumphant thump, we are treated to confessions of her carnal adventures in the catering trade, a highlight of which is, “Me and my boss did it everywhere, in the sea… his car… in a walk-in fridge at the hotel kitchen, with a face full of Calamari…”

This intimate fruity slice of theatre unpeels its layers gradually, making for an hilarious, if uneasy, experience. Saucy, voluptuous and part of your five a day.

Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale

Here is a short video clip and few images of my recent durational piece at the Femme Fatale event on the 5th of November. (if you are having trouble viewing this video then just log-in to your FB account and then re-fresh this page, I will upload it directly onto this blog as soon as I can)

Occupy London

I have been spending a lot of time down in the occupy London protest camp at St Pauls this week. It has been amazing to be part of a truly global community that is genuinely passionate about the world around them. Somebody said that it doesn't matter that we don’t have the answers, what matters is that we start the conversation and there is certainly a lot of conversations happening down there. Every night at 7pm there is the General Assembly (GA) in which logistics of the camp are discussed as well as important political and ideological questions and ideas. Over the weeks the topic each night has ranged from the media, the environment, Palestine, internet and technology, violence and of course many different discussions about capitalism. Each group’s idea is then fed back into the main GA meeting in order to be explored further by the entire group.

The camp also provides an entirely free cafe serving breakfast, lunch and dinner for every person every day and a tearoom where you can drink tea and have a game of chess. This micro direct democracy in action is far from perfect but is without doubt a timely and inspiring alternative which proves that it is possible to work together without the need for hierarchy and unequal power relations. The fact that it is happening in the city centre of London deep in the heart of the financial district makes it even more moving

portrait

This portrait of me was taken by the photographer Levi Webb

Levi’ is obsessed with light and I think that it is his creative use of light which gives his subjects an honesty and directness. There is a truthfulness which comes across in his work, a trueness of the person which I think makes them wonderfully engaging. more of his work can be seen here

check out the trailer for my solo show ...

I don't remember exactly when it happened... from katy baird on Vimeo.

I heart Tottenham

In this post I wanted to talk a little bit about Tottenham and love - love and Tottenham

Ok lets start with Tottenham. Tottenham is a district of north London, England and is in the Borough of Haringey. It is situated 6.6 miles (10.6 km) north-northeast of Charing Cross. Tottenham is famous for its football club Tottenham Hotspurs. It is thought to be the most ethnically diverse area in London, and possibly Europe, with 113 ethnic groups speaking around 193 languages. Unemployment is still London's highest and of course most recently Tottenham has become synonymous with the riots and looting which took place during the summer. Tottenham is also where I live:

As for love ? I will admit that I am not exactly an expert in matters of the heart. I have an ex - girlfriend who is in and out of my life like a fiddlers elbow and an ex- boyfriend who has ran away to live in a donkey sanctuary in Spain.

So needless to say I have been feeling a little bit despondent and jaded with the whole love thing. That’s when the facebook message came. Now its not the message that is important it is what it made me think of that matters:

This was an advert placed in the Scottish metro about 5 years ago by the artist Nic Green and as I thought about this advert again I had an idea. Can see where I am going here ? yes, that is right, I thought I could place the advert here in London and where better to do it than Tottenham, my home for the last 2 years.

So in my desire to rekindle my belief in love I made my own poster:

I posted them all around Tottenham

And I checked my emails every day - nothing. I was a little disappointed then a friend pointed out to me that maybe people didn’t have pens and paper at these places so found it hard to write down the contact e-mail.

So I changed my approach and I made a new poster with those little pull off strips at the bottom:

and i went back out into the streets...

Then I waited and I checked my e-mails, still no response so I started thinking that maybe I am putting them in the wrong places maybe I need to get out and about and speak to people. So I made some flyers and I went up the high street.

but it was no good, I failed dramatically in this task, not one single person replied to my advert. What is wrong with the people of south Tottenham. Right now you could be feeling all warm and fuzzy reading about a multi-cultural exchange of ideas around love. At this point in this very blog you could be watching a video of me doing something at an Ethiopian wedding or I could be telling you a about a poignant touching scene where a rude-boy from the wrong side of the tracks, maybe from Nigeria or Ghana, emails me to say he wants to tell his mum he loves her and then we could all go how touching how sweet aren't we just all the same underneath.

images courtesy of Jonathan Michael May