Gary Stevens: Thought Bubble

Gary Stevens is an artist who creates performances and video installations, working with a wide range of visual artists and performers from diverse backgrounds. His solo & ensemble works have been presented internationally in gallery, theatre, festival and public spaces.

The major live work, since 1984, is the result of long, practical and material development; the structure, which often includes an elaborate text, grows out of this process. His unique use of text and speech in a visual art context is formal, yet seems casual. It describes and defines a fictive space and situation but the conspicuous invention confronts us with something real. The work is also about modes of thought; a psychology is often alien or animal and at odds with the audience/spectators and performer's states of mind. It is critical and funny. The staging and productions are simple and stark, but the structures are rich, compelling and complex.

At Whitstable Stevens will be performing Not Tony as well as devising and presenting a new piece made especially for and during the Biennale. He will work with a group of visual art students for one week on a piece that explores thought processes, characterised by snippets of fleeting preoccupations, planned future events and snippets of pop songs.