SLOW // SMALL SCALE // LONGFORM
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we dream of building the structures necessary to enable a new culture, outside of the control of capitalism, to flourish, to grow, and to pull down the crumbling walls of dead institutions.
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we are an anti-colonial collective interested in transitional spaces and living archives; in community noise and wayward communes; in imagining the world after empire, and closing the distance between the horizon and the shoreline.
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we are a hearth around which revolutionaries can gather, share strategies, be nourished, regain capacity, and heal one another’s wounds.
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we do not accept the founding social, cultural, economic, or political values of the so-called West.
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we cultivate community, agitate towards liberation, and imagine the world as it might be.
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we centre home-based, site-responsive curation and support emerging creatives to breathe into their practice.
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Jane Morris
I’m a transfeminine playwright and artist interested in text-based game design.
As part of shelf/break, I write a lot of provocations, text, and scores for mapping out our experiences.
I love 121 performance and sharing intimate moments of ephemeral encounters with people in clubs and house parties.
My work is grounded in my socialist politics and anti-imperialist beliefs. I see art as a space to enable us to become more human.
As a solo artist, I’ve been a member of the Royal Court’s Long Group, written episodes of Radio Elusia for Boundless Theatre, and write plays and games about gender, folklore, violence, and what it means to be haunted.
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Néa Ishana Ranganathan
I’m a transmasc durational and live artist interested in the documentation of Tamil homeland.
As part of shelf/break, I build objects, sculptures, and zines as a form of archiving our practice. I love working in and with the land as a way of building meaningful encounters through clay, body, ritual, protest, and elongating time.
My work is grounded in anti-colonial politics and guerrilla resistance movements. I strive to humanise freedom fighters and curate spaces for generational healing in opposition to the eradication of our people, languages, and lands.
As a solo artist I have written my dissertation i drink the salt water to get sick (available in our archive - I am currently seeking publishers!), and made a cycle of land-based sculpting performances called ‘entirely of flesh’ which have been performed with Projekt Europa, Rotten Crip Collective, Poets for Palestine, and This Is A Threat.
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A note on mentoring
“Now more than ever, art has the duty to convey ideas of community and care to an audience that needs it. The Work is done across so many platforms, but art can provide a hint of hopeful futures. My aim in mentorship would be to provide any insights I’ve gained along the way, to be a sounding board for creative conversations, and to give a space for mutual care. We’re all getting there together.”
- Nick Murray
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Methodology
Our methodology emerged from our shared interest in resistance and site-responsive work. We want to find meaning in our locations, responding to the specificity of the buildings, cities, landscapes, and people who are performing the show with us. We have a cyclical approach to making which helps our sustainability. By thinking in iterations, we can take the time to create work without rushing, while providing space for other artists and participants to breathe and rest. We are interested in work which invites the audience into playful participatory dialogues around histories of radical political action, and which passes on practical knowledge and organising skills.
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Nick Murray
Nick is our wonderful mentor, supporting us as we navigate the intimate arts and design. Having mentors allows us to support each other, combating the isolation of the sector by passing on knowledge and breaking down hierarchies.
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Nick Murray is a producer, game-maker and artist making socially-led narrative work focusing on loss, collective memory and digital cultures. This often takes the form of games, interactive poetry and performance. Nick’s recent solo show, Return to Dreamphone, exploring local archives and the tributaries of the River Brent, was exhibited at Barham Park Studios (March 2025).
Formerly, Nick was lead producer for Now Play This at Somerset House, Director of Playing Poetry and associate producer with Penned in the Margins. In 2023, Nick was selected as part of Film London’s Lodestars cohort, celebrating innovative film and game-makers across the capital. Nick was ACAVA artist-in-residence at Barham Park 2024-25.
Nick holds a BA in Fine Art (Central Saint Martins) and an MA in Situated Practice (Bartlett School of Architecture).
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Inspirations
Our practice is rooted in our political and artistic ancestors, and all those who have struggled for liberation from systems of oppression. Some artists who inspire us and who we have shared with our undeveloped artists include Bobby Baker, Liz Rosenfeld, Claye Bowler, Toni Lewis, Avery Alder, Ray Young, and Evelynne Axell.
We also however have particular connections with certain artists. Néa worked on the UK tour of Memory of Birds by Tania El Khoury as Lead Audience Guide at Mayfest and Norfolk and Norwich Festival. Tania’s work is deeply meaningful for both of us, especially when we consider the ways our own practice meshes audience agency with explorations of histories of resistance. We have previously interviewed Emma Frankland, who makes beautiful material-based and punky trans art, often utilising rituals and questions of imagined histories. We also deeply admire Sheila Ghelani, who was our mentor for our graduate show and informed our approach to detail and pace and our fascination with objects.
Our political inspirations come from our organising work with our anti-imperialist campaign and collective, Built On Blood. We also look to the Tamil Tigresses, PAIGC, The Black Panthers, Franz Fanon, STAR, ACT UP, Lola Olufemi, Saidiya Hartman, and Student Encampments / Demonstrations for a Free Palestine.