Upstream with Bryony Gillard

Upstream is an essay-performance that interweaves domestic plumbing failures, bodily illness, protest and wastewater infrastructure to explore containment, leakage and control. Through humour and discomfort, the performance examines how waste, illness and toxicity are managed, hidden or displaced, and how responsibility is deferred “up (or down) stream.” Foregrounding embodied knowledge and sensory experience,

Upstream questions where care, agency and accountability reside within systems designed to make waste disappear. The performance (15 mins) will be followed by an opportunity for conversation about wastewater and Bryony's research.

Bryony Gillard is an artist and PhD Candidate at University of Plymouth. Her current research uses artists’ moving image to explore wastewater as an aesthetic, metaphor, material and method. Framed by a multi-disciplinary approach to theory and practice, her work asks what wastewater can teach us about bodies, responsibility and care. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at East Quay, (Somerset, 2026), a commission with Focal Point Gallery (Southend, 2025) and an essay and performance for Mirror Lamp Journal (Dublin, 2025). Her work has been presented nationally and internationally including ESTUARY (Kent), Jerwood Arts (London), Playbill (Amsterdam), Ocean Archive at TBA21 (Venice), Tate St.Ives (Cornwall).

Arrivals, bar open: 6pm

Essay Performance and conversation: 7pm

Hangout and dancing to follow

11 March is also the CLOSING EVENT for Metabolizer.

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Host or Publisher Julia Pond