Marge Swanson
Marge Swanson
Marge Swanson is a fake news story perpetuated by Rational Liberal. [1] The myth purports that a woman named Marge Swanson, a "fat acceptance activist" who told people there is no health advantage to being thin, had died of a heart attack at age 34.
Her real name is Kelli Jean Drinkwater.
She is an Artist and Activist recognised internationally for her creative practice and voice in radical body politics. Kelli Jean uses the body as a site to explore themes of identity, queer and feminist theory and society’s obsession with “perfection”. She takes the iconic and subverts it through the filter of her fatness. Often confrontational, her work aims to investigate the complex relationship people have with their bodies.
Education
She holds a BA in Visual arts from the University of Newcastle and has studied Film at UCIrvine.
Career
Kelli Jean has performed, hosted and curated events in London (UK) for Club Antisocial, Duckie and The Place. Recent performances include Force Majeure’s Nothing to Lose for Sydney Festival and Dance Massive at Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, NightCraft for MCA’s Artbar, Tableau Vivant for Underbelly Arts Festival, MonstaGras at The Red Rattler Theatre and Department H in Tokyo. She is a resident artist with The Glitter Militia performance collective in Sydney, Australia.
Collaboration is a major part of Kelli Jean’s practice and she has had the privilege of working with some of the most respected artists in their field.
Collaborations with award winning choreographers and directors such as Kate Champion and Shelly Glover as well as artists Justin Shoulder, Scottee, Penelope Benton and Alex Clapham, have been featured in major international galleries, festivals and magazines.
Her most recent collaboration with Kate Champion on Force Majeures’ Nothing to Lose, was an opportunity fuse her passions as a performer, theatre maker and sound curator to help create a work that resonated politically and personally.
Co-commissioned by Sydney Festival and Carriageworks, Nothing to Lose continues to receive critical and audience acclaim.
Her film Aquaporko! has been in official selection at 38 international film festivals to date including, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, InsideOut Toronto, Frameline San Francisco and OutFest London and MIX Festival Copenhagen.
Kelli Jean is currently in production on an independent documentary film focusing on the cast of Nothing to Lose.
Performance
Nothing to Lose
Nothing to Lose is the award winning sell out hit of Sydney Festival 2015. An unapologetic exploration of fat bodies in motion. Created by award winning dance theatre makers Force Majeure. Directed by Kate Champion and Artistic Associate Kelli Jean Drinkwater, this show captured the imagination of sell out audiences at Carriageworks as part of Sydney Festival 2015 and at The Malthouse Theatre as part of Dance Massive 2015, Australia’s leading dance festival in Melbourne. As well as grabbing the attention of countless international media publications.
NightCraft
Goddess, Witch, Daughter, Mother, Whore, Crone – Reconnecting and remembering what has been erased of our Matriarchal lineage and herstory – magic, life, sex, the body, spirituality and creation.
Re-defining all that is relegated to the gendered body of woman.
Specifically, we navigate the fat, older female body as a site of resistance in contemporary culture.
This installation and performance piece connects woman to her body, her herstory and her current collective of crones and dames.
It celebrates the magic and differences that women bring to culture, spirituality, healing, politics, love, science and the environment and by definition; nature.
By positioning the body as fat and ageing, we dissent in the face of our dominant cultures prescription of the “perfect” body, the perfect “woman” and the invisibility/invalidation of the Crone.
The Glitter Militia
Kelli Jean often collaborates with Sydney based performance collective THE GLITTER MILITIA.
Conceived by Matthew Stegh and Justin Shoulder and established in 2004, they produce bent performance work, parties, films, exhibitions and immersive theatrical experiences in warehouses, nightclubs, at festivals and in theatre spaces throughout Sydney.
Tableau Vivant
The banquet and the still-life are common visual themes in art throughout the ages.
Grand feasts of the Baroque era were works of art themselves, activating all the senses and dissolving the boundaries of creative disciplines.
Lavish displays in the form of sugar sculptures were significant and popular elements of the banquet.
Dishes were designed to entertain the eye, moreso than to be eaten.Tableau
Vivant is a French term, which was a popular form of entertainment before radio, film and television. It
has been said the tableau vivant marries art forms of the stage with those of painting or photography. Tableau
is also from the French diminutive of “table”. This
project was a further exploration into the spectacle and the spectacular around the dining table, through installation, performance, costume and the concept of living sculpture.
The Obeast
Inspired by the work of Rachel Herrick and her MOCS project Kelli Jean found her inner obeast and released her into the wilds of clubland.
Untamable, insatiable and furious, she is your worst nightmare.
As seen at Monsta Gras (SYD), Harvest Festival (SYD) and the notorious Department H(TOKYO).
Fierce Flash
Sexes Festival
A night of performance and music curated by queer punk band Glory Hole commissioned by Performance Space as part of Sexes Festival.
Club Hosting and MC
Kelli Jean started her career as an MC at the now legendary London nightclub Antisocial along side Scottee since then she has gone on to host various events for the likes of Duckie (UK), Night time at Performance Space and various events with The Glitter Militia and other events at The Red Ratler Theatre
Film
Aquaporko [5]
Nothing to lose [5]
Awards
Her film Aquaporko! won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at Mardi Gras Film Festival 2013.