iMelania (2019 - present)
Supported by: Arts Council England, Barbican OpenLab, Quarterhouse Folkestone, Battersea Arts Centre, Arts Depot, Camden People’s Theatre and London Pleasance.
Presented at: Calm Down Dear Festival at Camden People’s Theatre, Summerhall at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Omnibus Theatre and to be shown at GIFT Festival 2022 https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/production/imelania/
★★★★ ‘Technically ingenious, perceptive and reflective’ – The Stage
‘Totally loved iMelania… formally brilliant, juggling devices and perspectives in a way that felt startlingly live and on point politically. Smashes Adam Curtis out the park.’ – Tassos Stevens
‘Like nothing I’ve ever seen before’ – Krishna Istha
Digital devised performance film created with collaborator Paula Varjack as Varjack-Lowry exploring what makes some foreigners more ‘acceptable’ than others? What is the cost of belonging? iMelania is an audio-visual experience that takes place on your phone and desktop. Varjack-Lowry use Melania Trump as an avatar to blur their narratives and participants stories; sharing, obscuring and questioning experiences of being foreign in post-Brexit Britain.
TheBabyQuestion (Filming in July 2022)
Supported by: Arts Council England, Attenborough Arts Centre, Cambridge Junction, London Pleasance.
Development Blog: https://thebabyquestion.tumblr.com/
Digital devised performance film created with collaborator Paula Varjack as Varjack-Lowry with guest artists Catriona James and Luca Rutherford.
During the live recording of a seventies top of the pops style chart show, three female dancers perform Pans’s People style routines. Meanwhile, an unseen male host mixes chart hit titles with landmark moments in feminism, reproductive rights, and increasingly personal references about the dancers performing. Gradually the world of the chart show breaks down, as these women consider what it means for them to be childfree/childless.
Get On The Internet! (2022)
Commissioned by: Omnibus Theatre
See the whole programme here: https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/get-on-the-internet/
Get On The Internet! was a week long festival celebrating and showcasing some of Varjack-Lowry’s art babe faves based in the UK, Germany, Australia, Greece and the USA, in the run up to International Women’s Day.
The programme was jam packed full of online and hybrid events, including opportunities for a glimpse into the working process of 5 fabulous artists and companies taking up hybrid residencies at Omnibus Theatre; Aba Naia, Catherine Duquette, Jemima Yong, Simone French and Hot Cousin.
Throughout the week there were performances and online content by Louise Orwin, Silvia Mercuriali, Fast Familiar, Ira Brand, The Demolition Project, and Sue Mayo.
Varjack-Lowry also ran a workshop as well as presenting new and previously unseen work.
To round up the festival, there was a hybrid screening party featuring work by Luca Rutherford, Shebekeke, Francesca Pazniokas, Eliza Soroga, Emma Ready, Liberty Antonia Sadler, Jessica Roch and more.
The Time (2021)
Commissioned by: Spread The Word, University of Kent
Available at this link: https://vimeo.com/656596307
From your morning scroll to an afternoon stroll, THE TIME has a way of making less sense during a global pandemic. Whether you’re lost in a loop, the day doesn’t seem to end, or you blinked and a month had passed again, there’s something a little off for everyone attempting to make sense of THE TIME. Enjoy a recap of the last 18 months and a look at the year/s ahead, all straight to your phone, compressed to a social media friendly length.
Created by Varjack-Lowry with young people from South East London, THE TIME responds to the A Day At A Time research of Professor Emily Grabham, Dr Rebecca Coleman and Dr Dawn Lyon.
Yard Youth: A demonstration of our adventures alone and together (2020)
Commissioned by: Yard Youth
Available at this link: https://vimeo.com/437863784
I co-led this project with my collaborator Paula Varjack as part of our work as Varjack-Lowry with support from Katie Greenall. We worked with a group of young people aged 11-14 year olds from Hackney to create a film over a series of Zoom workshops together. The final piece was a playful, engaging and thoughtful short film that explored how young people have connected during the pandemic, even when they are apart.