Performing Northumbria: Empire

Performing Northumbria: Empire explores the question of 'empire' through the optic of the North of England. It focuses in part on Hadrian's Wall which is 73 Roman miles long and runs from Bowness on the Solway Firth to Wallsend (close to the Baltic on the north bank of the River Tyne). It was constructed not only to keep those to the north (still to this day understood academically as 'Barbarians') at bay but also to regulate the flow of people and goods from the north to the south – not unlike today's border controls that exist between nation states. However in the case of Rome, the 'wall' marked itÕs furthermost northern boundary. In the contemporary culture we are witnessing a frequent allusion being drawn between that of Ancient Rome and the 'new imperium' of the United States of America.

The work has two phases:

1. The use of Hutton's text and itinerary as a palimpsest in order to arrive at a new performance text. This will have involved travelling Hutton's route and collecting associated data that bares relevance to the subjects at hand.

2. The artistic outcome of this process will take the form of a discursive performance developed at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. This will collide action and reading to arrive at a collective dynamic in which the notion of audience might dissolve and help to further explode the critical and allegorical dimensions of Empire.

Tim Brennan is an independent practitioner who has exhibited internationally for over 20 years. He is engaged in the notion of discursive practice through performance, photography, sculpture, writing, publication, drawing, curating and teaching. Since 1987, he has produced a corpus of work which has included the politics of the gallery and beyond.