ALEXA REID 

I am a cross-disciplinary artist and teacher, working in the margins between theatre, live art, and installation. My practice research currently examines and responds to archives and collections, site/place, folk and mythological narratives and characters. With interests in archaeology, botany and ecology, and the porous intersections between body/science/medicine/obstetrics, with a particular focus on matrescence, the act of becoming (m)other. 

As a mother of four, my lived experience of mothering critically informs my practice and pedagogy. My creative practice is conceptually grounded in an exploration of cyclical processes of regeneration and degeneration, with a sustained interest in the tension between fecundity and decay. I employ embodied, material-led methodologies that incorporate drawing, collecting, the use of found and salvaged materials, craft practices, object-based dramaturgies, and autobiographical materials to devise and fabricate performance rituals, performative costumes, objects and sculptures, and sense-centric experiences within/for site-specific and/or immersive performance/installation environments. 

I have developed and presented performance and installation works across the UK and internationally, undertaking a range of roles within collaborative contexts, including: Lead Artist, Scenographer, Director, Dramaturg, Designer and Performer. My practice has involved sustained collaboration with pioneering artists, institutions, and sites. Notable collaborations/partnerships include: Artangel, Artsadmin, CeSDAS, The Cricoteka (Krakow), The Horniman Museum (London), Teatro Garibaldi (Palermo), Inchcolm Island Abbey (Firth of Forth), The National Portrait Gallery (Washington), LADA, National Theatre (London), Punchdrunk, O'Teatrone (Naples), Schloss Lüntenbeck (Wuppertal), Mark Storor, The Whitechapel Gallery (London). The Wellcome Trust, and Lotos Collective, of which I was a founding member and co-artistic director between 2006-2011. 

Alongside my creative practice, I have taught widely in Higher Education settings including Central Saint Martins, Rose Bruford College, Brunel University, the University of Guelph (Canada), and Università Agrigento (Sicily), and have been a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, since 2012. My teaching and practice are in constant dialogue, informing, expanding, and enriching one another.