Talker #15: Anne Bean

Talker is an interview zine about performance by Giles Bailey.

Issue #15 is a conversation with Anne Bean.

Anne has been working with performance since childhood. Hers is a practice of vital, embodied authenticity at the very vanguard of performance art in Britain. An inveterate collaborator, she has worked with Paul McCarthy, Rod Melvin, Franklin Aalders, Poshya Kaki, Carlyle Reedy, Stephen Cripps, and the Kipper Kids among countless others. With Paul Burwell and Richard Wilson, she was a member of Bow Gamelan Ensemble.

Her work has featured in the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s A Short History of Performance (resisting their request for an ‘iconic’ piece) and was included in Tate Britain’s vast survey, Women in Revolt!, Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990. She was a 2007 fellow at Franklyn Furnace and worked with Zambian artist Serah Chule at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

This interview examines a body of creative work that spans many decades and continues furiously.

Issues of Talker have featured Ian White, Kate Valk, Richard Maxwell, Sue Tompkins, Spalding Gray with Kathy Acker, Dora García, Jo Fong, Paul Maheke, Clifford Owens, Barby Asante, Gustav Metzger, Miranda July, Agus Nur Amal PMTOH, Bobby Baker, Mayo Thompson, and Anne Bean.