writer-performer-artist asking questions & offering creative resistances internationally & virtually. ''an amazingly light touch with very serious and important topics, giving your audience space to experience your work and concerns in such an intimate way. i find your work relevant, poetic and so original.'' Alma Zevi Venice
Posts by gobscure
con busters comes ov age
September 23, 2021what the con party forgot to broadcast loudly was how theyre saving 1.5billion pounds annually just from pensions they dont have to pay to those who have so far died under covid - thats a lot of universal credit £20 continuity payments could be made just from that gove in ...
‘& housing contains the word sing’ part 2
September 14, 2021In the second ov four articles as part ov a partnership between DAO & the Museum ov Homelessness (MoH) on the shared DNA ov homelessness & disability – associate artist gobscure discusses Octavia Butlers 'the normals don't survive' Disability Arts Online · Article2 Housing Contains Word Sing this article is about the ...
government to ban laughing
September 9, 2021couldnt they pick on someone their own size, say the taliban?
different battle same war 10 – little voice healing
September 8, 2021Disability Arts Online · Different Battle Same War 10 burn still plays out. we are calling for little voice healing. war against the planet herself. . our voices, our words, our stories have been weaponised marketised medicalised tony blair's beloved, dangerous personality disorder going through when i was locked up one time, ...
dissident badges for all
August 14, 2021thanks Futures Venture radical Independent Arts fund and Edinburgh Printmakers for supporting us in disrupting Edinburgh International Art Festival dissident power rangers (all disabled & all feisty as fuck), misguided tours (make yr own demo), receipt book art & dissident badges for all, & way more - heres some visuals from ...
freedom day
July 19, 2021so prime minister alexander boris de pfeffel johnson has succeeded in pinging himself, javid & sunak & all are in isolation as a result. get in. tho a few more (gove & patel for starters) could also get pinged, anyone got their #? meanwhile heres something we prepared earlier
hope is a four letter word
July 19, 2021In the first of four articles relating to a partnership between DAO and the Museum of Homelessness (MoH) – '& housing contains the word sing ...', associate artist gobscure discusses the shared DNA of homelessness and disability Disability Arts Online · Article1 Housing Contains Word Sing were typing this in our tyneside ...
the con partys endless war part xxx
July 11, 2021from boris fixed it satirical cut-ups https://www.flickr.com/photos/joey1981/albums/72157719515731523
love island / sausage wars : same or different?
July 7, 2021in other news county-lines gove asked us to leave him alone at this difficult time
different battle same war 9: elif shafak, and her strategy, the bisexual pen
July 5, 2021Disability Arts Online · different battle same war 9: elif shafak, and her strategy, the bisexual pen rant nine for elif shafak, and her strategy, the bisexual pen. its rainbow month. the year before the pandemonium set in the local supermarket, here on tyneside had pride month in its window. i think ...
more con busters – bodies pile high
June 15, 2021taken from ongoing con busters https://www.flickr.com/photos/joey1981/albums/72157718826415583
Different battle same war 08: wordbomb baby
May 20, 2021Disability Arts Online · Different battle same war 08: Word bomb baby Here We Come same battle. different war. rant number eight. wordbomb baby here we come wordbomb baby here we come a wordbomb baby here we come wordbomb baby here we come wordbomb baby here we come wordbomb baby here ...
election results (pretending its satire tho)
May 18, 2021more genuine news screengrabs - layered or placed alongside to tell the truth more truthfully - crabs in the bucket prime minister and home secretary, trump & salmond; or for light relief lord sir kier and vegetables
latest con buster
May 4, 2021Satirical collage featuring Boris Johnson eating an ice cream under the headlines a new form of crim and the hot vax summer
?can we count on yr vote in the forthcoming
April 26, 2021increasingly the put-down line from the cons is 'yr being political' ... if yu dont like the state of things. so for the upcoming elections were attempting to be neutral as the beeb (!) - satire 4 all, have we got the hang ov it? what dya think?? (couldnt find ...
fragisle – for awkward bastards at home, dash
April 19, 2021fragisle from gobscure / burn this commission from dash is part of dash arts awkward bastards at home fragisle. words by burn / visuals -sound - performance by gobscure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtxtRJ40K_c they say dont work with animals or children, we reply dont work with clockwork animals! how hard can it be to wind-up a bird ...
algorithms were completely banjaxed and as a consequence of that shelves were empty
April 13, 2021our first found-poem from year one of the current pandemonium - no edits, just layerings outta sane-world tm we been sheltering from - 4million+ gove-mental letters for april fools thanking us shielders for our sacrifices (at least hancock-jenrick arent giving us clap), reminding we still shouldnt go out, be around ...
nurse tells p.m. sharp scratch
April 1, 2021to mark april fools 2021 c.e. aka the day gove-mentals say were to stop shielding & go out & ... die? more con busters & 'boris fixed it for me' badges are being posted here
‘boris’ fixed it for me – a new line of medallion
March 23, 2021& this is the less nasty of 'em - pm channeling a dodgy dj (to put it mildly) is not a goodlook - heres cut up, alls post satire now (yu want the nastier un's? theyre at link below https://www.flickr.com/photos/joey1981/albums/72157713580127022
chancellor has a good budget / matt hancock launches nhs zero / pm fat-shames & factshames
March 8, 2021yu had a good budget? us neither. the chancellor did - but then he is richer than queen, sorry richer than the queen meanwhile matt hancock 'refreshes' his nhs messaging - from nhs hero to nhs zero and the prime-minister manages to fatshame and factshame (first time he's ever multitasked) con busters is ...
the daily spaff. prototypes 1 & 2
February 22, 2021the daily spaff. prototypes 1 & 2. daily briefing from a closet inside drowning street. gut reaction raw-theatre (roar-theatre) improvised to camera, no writing / thinking (very govern-mental). (haircut took a while tho - osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel, dyspraxia, historic bone trauma plus whatever neurologicalweirdness disco-ordinates us more) https://vimeo.com/513656607 https://vimeo.com/513658678 still with added csl ...
votelove sending all some urgent comms
February 18, 2021aka messaging. meanwhile 'senior labour sauces' urge lord sir kier to 'show some ankle'. what do they even think this means? are they with countylines gove? heres some satire to add to the valentines day mascara / massacre / sheltering in place
different battle same war 07: love and rage on valentine’s day
February 16, 2021Disability Arts Online · Different Battle Same War 7 it is valentine’s day, are you with massacre or the mascara? johnson, the prime minister of drowning street product of a broken home fantasises godfather that bloodbath ending. as for michael gove, he’s on the record as saying al capone is his ...
love for all curated by gobscure
February 11, 2021Dear all, We would like to share a token of our love, curated by gobscure, and brought to life by their diverse crew. recipes for love is a collection of artworks, recipes and letters for you, and those you love. Find them online here: https://thenewbridgeproject.com/events/recipes-for-love/ Some of you may have received these offerings ...
learn to love yr madnesses – album of sound-art from gobscure
January 20, 2021weve written for dao before about mad sound, a logical response to an insane world. in our rants weve pointed out how 'canon' is the wrong shape - canon is the then foreign secretary (now prime minister) reciting rudyard kipling in a temple in myanmar while the world asks is ...
turn the book around e.p.
January 11, 20214 tracks of sound art culled from many sources longterm including residencies with dash, cesta & our associateship with greyscale theatre leading to touring joey after our worst sectioning (psychiatric prison) we discovered that creative industries had designed / marketed spoonrests. more recently shredder lubrication paper now exists - its sole ...
different battle same war 06: grim up north, mutant down south
January 8, 2021 Disability Arts Online · Different Battle Same War 06: grim up north, mutant down south rant number six, grim up north, mutant down south. start of 2021 common era and klf are releasing their back catalogue. first time in what 29 years that it's officially grim up north. we overthink drowning ...
provoked 2 madness by the brutality of wealth e.p.
January 6, 20212 track e.p. from project of the same name, which including touring show of the same name-supported by boost : third angel mentorship scheme in association with sheffield theatres. more dates to come in 2021 c.e. night gale was commissioned by disconsortia 2020 c.e. night gale & her son upon ...
different battle same war #5: hyena in petticoats
November 24, 2020Disability Arts Online · different battle same war #5 hyena in petticoats this rants adapted from hyena in petticoats - our ongoing multi-art-form living memorial to mary wollstonecraft. more is now out thanks to a commission from together! 2020 disability history month. this new work includes performance-to-camera - a lockdown demo ...
hyena in petticoats
November 16, 2020online exhibition / screening / album - from 19 nov, 7pm commissioned by together 2020 disability history month festival - film, online exhibition, e-zine of art / writing / activities because mary wollstonecraft wz bad, rad, bi, mutha, internationalist, feminist before the word, a writer & mad - she, disabilities included - ...
theatre that should blow your mind (british theatre guide)
November 4, 2020review on british theatre guide website by Helen Brown yu can’t start revolutions sitting on yr arse - by gobscure bilingual - BSL and spoken-english War declared against homeless. We have heart. Unlike Drowning Street. Tears in rain. Well written, well observed, well directed, well performed. It’s written by gobscure, an Artistic Associate with ...
eton mess – aka all yu need to know ever
November 2, 2020it is full lockdown minus shielding letters (did yu get yrs - we didnt get ours either) but with students free to roam (no offence on students) plus prime-minister-whose-surname-is-yank-slang-for-penis-and-he-is-afterall-born-there got out the unbranded correction oh-so-white fluid (theres a blob round goves nose as we speak) and erased the word lockdown ...
yu cant start revolutions sitting on yr arse
October 28, 2020yu can't start revolutions sitting on yr arse bilingual film (BSL and english) written by gobscure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McpCrI7SjqI us on homelessness, love&rage
what did yu do in ‘the good war’ – um, satire
October 26, 2020folks will have seen some of these previously across the course of the eugenics campaign against us - 'a good war' is collectively online see below. heres some recent ones from series 'make orange great again' and series 'operation save face'. love&rage https://www.flickr.com/photos/joey1981/albums/72157713580127022
different battle same war 4: learning to soar with Dave Toole
October 19, 2020Disability Arts Online · different battle same war 4: learning to soar with Dave Toole we had intended to record a different rant. we were going to talk about the governmentals' beta, as in betamax, careers advisory service that's just gone online. we were going to tell you that about we ...
zoonpolitikon (political-animal) – new album from gobscure
October 13, 2020a punk is literally a smoulder-stick used to light fireworks, Serj Tankians talking armenia (Elif Shafaks big system of a down fan and she's amazing new words out), while napalm deaths a bellyful of salt and spleen in ever-howl against injustice powerful as ever, meanwhile 'playlist curators' chat 'how death ...
‘moving, powerful, eloquent’
October 2, 2020what slung low said of the premiere in leeds of gobscures latest solo show 'provoked to madness by the brutality of wealth.' the art and album (gobscure is a multiaward winning sound artist too thanks to 2 awards from sound&music) was previously seen in art of protest group exhibition organised ...
disconsortia: a time 2 grow
September 25, 2020as part of a series of artistic responses from the artist-led initiative disconsortia, based in the north-east and supported by Disability Arts Online through our D4D project, gobscure posts a duo of images reflecting on the collective. these artworks are made on a black background with multicoloured liquid chalk markers. the left-hand ...
different battle same war, the third
September 23, 2020Disability Arts Online · different battle same war the third this text is adapted from what we wrote for the zine thats part of our show called provoked 2 madness by the brutality of wealth. in the show everyone gets a free copy of the zine and a piece of crimescenetape ...
different battle same war 2: the ligatures of austerity
August 18, 2020Disability Arts Online · Different Battle Same War 2: the ligatures of austerity different battle same war. number two. there is one bad word out there we've been talking about for a while, austerity. it seemed to disappear about the time that dave cameron did. slaver dave cameron invented schools czars ...
if the prime minister will keep on making historic salutes
August 4, 2020then we can only remind folks
govern-mentals media strategy – really is ‘throw a dead cat on the table’
July 23, 2020govern-mentals media strategy really is 'throw a dead cat on the table', they talk about it publicly (no one asks who supplied drowning street with the corpses) -
inspired by Museum of Homelessness
July 20, 2020our new online work - inpired by Museum of Homelessness (where we are also artistic associate - another part of our lived experiences) - a blue sky idea for arts&heritage talks about the realities of homelessnesses today and how the 1824 vagrancy act is still used to harrass. the fee ...
different battle, same war 01
July 15, 2020different battle, same war. 2020 - 2022 c.e. Disability Arts Online · Different Battle Same War 01 rants have long been (dis)honourable art. as artistic associate of dao 2020 c.e. - 2022 c.e. weve decided to record 20 ov 'em, likely monthly, and hopefully at the end in a pamphlet. we pick ...
social-distancing solved by mad, bad, rad, bi, mutha, internationalist, & feminist-b4-that-word-wz-built mary wollstonecraft
June 30, 2020curious arts (north-east lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer + arts organisation) supported audioqueer episode 6 out now. https://vimeo.com/432449130 nearly an hour of gobskewerings on creative resistances. including hyena in petticoats performance that solves social-distancing - prototypes presented at mac birmingham (thanks 2 mike and all at dash 4 awkward bastards i ...
on drowning street erasing the d-word (disability) under covid19
June 22, 2020recently received a northern broadsides digital squad commission - the 3 mazer films have now gone live alongside interviews. mazer are about multiple things - including how since covid19 drowning street declared eugenics and also disappeared the d-word (disability) so we are literally erased. (were writing from north of hadrians ...
reflecting on racist killers
June 15, 2020some Killer Mike here: Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike and El-P Talk Police, Rioting, White Privilege and ‘RTJ4’ some Audrey Lorde here: The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House much love&rage to yu's all
in these arms riots love
June 9, 2020since 1981 we've tried talking about growing up being called psycho - 2 other friends with similarly 'colourful' names - joey deacon went on blue peter and b4 joey even became term of abuse they got in first reclaiming it and we went 'yu can do that with words?!' blowing ...
more welshpoppies
June 5, 2020welshpoppies break all binaries - and will tour alongside banner, soundscapes, pop-up exhibition, film, publication and spokenword performance plus participation - making quick public art giving voice to all - this is waters of life. spent 37 years trying to get this heard - at last getting there. afon wysyg ...
more welsh poppy advice
June 3, 2020part of project 78 miles long that takes in site of britains last insurrection (citizens of casnewydd / newport have added to date into that writing on their walls)
welshpoppies break all binaries
May 8, 2020more to be said creatively on welshpoppies - lengths of afon wysg / river usk, keeping us alive many times - they arent 'war-rememberings' or 'pain-relievings' but childhood wavings from b4 ...
decomposing: a rumination on the art canon, ‘mad sounds’ and ‘bandwidth’ by gobscure
November 14, 2019Artist gobscure takes us on a meandering journey through their recent exploits in composition and sound art ('mad sound,' as they call it), sending up the notions of the art 'canon' and suggesting an alternative via the concept of 'bandwidth' along the way. gobscure writes in colloquial parlance, eschewing the ...
red tape … saving lives since … ?
May 23, 2019mad, bad, rad, bi, mutha, feminist-b4-the-word, internationalist, pamphleteer mary wollstonecraft was written off as 'hyena in petticoats' for all the above. a hyena in petticoats is currently at work - allowing folks to write across their skirts as theyre sung to from behind a hyena-mask. theres way more to hyenas ...
axe-throwing as a first date
January 23, 2019screengrabbing 'news', this is post-satire, all as is, we just layer them up / comment. posters online Axe throwing as a first date. www.flickr.com/photos/joey1981/albums/72157705579749464 – faves still trumps husband coming out against trump
Neal Pike tells his story of life in an S.E.N. school in the 1990s.
November 22, 2018Neal Pike brought his first full-length spoken word show to Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle from 13th-17th November. Five Years tells the story of Neil's experience of attending a special educational needs school in the 90’s. Reflections by gobscure Neal started writing and performing with Nottingham-based Mouthy Poets a few years ago, but it ...
words are weapons & we’re at war
March 15, 2017presentation at celf for muriau - mental health & arts festival wales, gobscure 2017 given words before mam died, she told stories which we still carry, helpin us find ... born with language, languages, language-sings but mostly these are taken - education, society, media, law, politics, family, genders, sexualities, ethnicities, class, ...
is hearing the voice durhams uncritical promoting ov eugenicist awarded medal by göring cooool?
February 4, 2017godwins laws some internet-saying as discussion grows anything will end compared to hitler but hearing the voice durham do include writings ov eugenicist given medal by göring in their current exhibition / online & completely without context & so am questioning this facts matter despite what were increasingly told: exhibition - ...
gobscure: who can’t speak about voices?
December 8, 2016gobscure posts a recorded presentation responding to hearing the voice durham and their current poor commissioning policy around hearing voices & arts https://audioboom.com/posts/5298051-who-cant-speak-about-voices who can't speak about voices? visualise whose not in this chair ... (stand, place chair centre-stage, walk behind audience) sometimes soundbite, bullet-point, tweet arent enough lets start with war photography. which really ...
Sean Burn: Chilcot Remix (terra)
August 1, 2016Brand new remix of an old text (with soundscapings) in response to the Chilcot report on Tony Blair's war crimes. #seanburn, #spokenword, #chilcotreport, #tonyblairwarcrimes chilcot remix. 8'37''. 2016. i lost my way. twelve years underground, isolation, different names, a lost self. i had arrived at a deeply wrong way of responding to ...
three wee brexit rapid-response plays
June 27, 2016sean burn is a tyneside-european playwright & gobscure is associate company ov greyscale theatre He sent this piece in to DAO exonerating us to please perform / improv(e) these widely as possible, add to, argue over, love & rage! p.s. exit (from brexit) aint anglo-saxon but latin make my day punk (wouldnt yu love ...
