Michelle Browne

Michelle Browne’s practice is fundamentally performance-based. She is interested in the face to face encounter inherent in performance. We are social creatures and tapping into these basic human characteristics, how we interact with each other, is of great interest to her. There are two distinct strands to her practice, which can be thought of as public/collaborative practice and gallery-based performance.

Browne is influenced by the discourse around collaborative practice and is interested in the ethical concerns surrounding artworks which involve an exchange between people, either through a direct collaboration or through a performance setting. Her work borne out of these considerations is often instigated by looking at the flaws of contemporary urban planning and general use of city spaces, often in a playful manner. Past works in this vain include The Portapath, Border Border and Mind The Gap.

This work is frequently developed site-specifically and the participation of the general public is sought as part of the art work. Encouraging the viewer to take an active role in the art-making process is what drives Browne to create this kind of work. Participation activates or creates the work. For the most part, participants are entering into a situation of her orchestration and they play out this situation, much as a musician might play a piece of music in an orchestra. The interaction with participants opens up a constructed social space in which to engage with each other and/or the world around them. Browne strives to create work that challenges people's comfort in public spaces and the complacency that builds up as people go about their daily lives.

The second strand is a more traditional form of performance practice, made for gallery or festival settings. Her more recent work focuses on issues intrinsic to performance itself: the body, duration and the relationship between the viewer and the performer. Humour and satire are used to draw people into the work. In recent times her work has also evolved through performance to video, sound and sculpture. She is interested in using the body to explore themes relating to sexuality, vulnerability, vanity and beauty.

The unifying element in all of Browne's work is an investigation of how we co-exist together as a public of disparate individuals. Her work questions what it means to live together, and how society organises itself, whether on a practical level, through the city and the organisation of how we live spatially and politically, or on a conceptual level through identity politics and how we situate ourselves in contemporary society.