Rachel Parry (they/them) b.1983 in North Nottinghamshire with complicated roots.
Rachel is a UK based interdisciplinary visual artist, curator and producer, who’s experimental approach to their practice blends the use of Live Performance Art, Installation, Traditional Fine Arts, Writing & Texts, Body-Based Movement, Sound, Creative & Digital Technologies, to constantly dissect and retell their own living history.
They see no division to their practice and surrounding work: all coming under the same supportive umbrella of recovery and a yearning to belong. Uncannily tender and often provocative; Rachel aims to get under the shared skins of embodied trauma / disability and chronic illness / gender and multi-neurodivergent identities.
Rachel gained a degree in Fine Arts from Northumbria University (2005) and a Masters Degree in Performance Practice from DMU (2015). Parry is a studio member of Broadway’s Near Now Studios, a community of innovative artists, designers and creative technologists.
Rachel formed DIY Performance Platform Little Wolf Parade, Founded GAL Collective (a neurodivergent queer artist-as-activist-led initiative) at their gallery/performance space: Guerilla Art Lab. They have managed bands on their the UK / European tour legs, guest lectured internationally including at Kungliga Konsthögskolan / The Royal Institute of Art (Stockholm) as well as holding residencies at the National Justice Museum (Nottingham) and Gonzo Unit (Thessaloniki, Greece).
Rachel has performed, shown artwork and taught, nationally and internationally for over 15 years in a variety of gallery spaces, festivals, theatres, artist-led spaces, site-specific locations and uninvited public actions/interventions. Notable performances have been at Manchester Museum (research with Tyndall Climate Change Research Center), The National Review of Live Art, Tempting Failure International Festival of Performance, Graces Exhibition Space (New York) and Venice International Performance Art Week/Co-Creation Live Factory “Dissenting Bodies Marking Time”.
Their online piece, 'MALPER', was programmed as part of DaDaFest International 2022.
MALPER - additional show credits:
Rachel Smith (creative technologist), NearNow Nottingham, Puncture The Screen Festival who commissioned the first work in progress.