Spike Mclarrity

Biography

In 2012 I graduated from my MA in performance and visual practices with distinction at Brighton University and since then have been travelling on the international performance scene, attending various festivals across Asia.  I have been travelling to Japan for several years, where I spend a month travelling, performing, and exhibiting artwork at Café Goddard Gallery in Tokyo, Donkey and Orange in Nishi Ogikubo as well as attending NIPAF (Nippon International Arts Festival) where I travelled for two weeks throughout Japan along with other international artists performing in different cities.  I have also travelled and performed in the Philippines and ran free lectures in local schools and talks with local art groups.

I took part in the IMAF (International Multimedia Arts Festival) In Serbia, collaborating with local Serbian artists, and many other festivals throughout Europe.  I have focussed on building up an international portfolio over the past nine years and have a vast network of performance artists that I work with across the world.   My work is mainly existential and live, I have been free to live and breathe as a conceptual performance artist without the restraints of institutions allowing the nomadic element of work to emerge.  In 2019 I took part in the first ever Islamabad Art Festival in Pakistan, where I ran free workshops and lectures and was awarded for my performance "Behind the mask of White rabbit is a Shaman".

My work generally deals with male identity, though I spend most of my life behind the mask of my alter ego Barnes White Rabbit.  In 2016 I was outed by the UK press, which then went viral for my performance of appearing every first of the month on a wall by the river Thames in South West London dressed as a large white rabbit.  This has led me to investigate aspects of the art, myth, and folklore of the rabbit.