97 Years

In this interactive installation, one performer delicately works through a series of conversations between her and her Grandfather.

Jo gradually recruits audience members to help her hold the installation together, picking through memories - some fleeting and some irrevocably lost. Live audio and video manipulation creates a complex, carefully composed environment that explores the joys and sorrows, the tenderness and the violence of ageing. This is a poignant investigation of mental health that invites the audience to decipher a confused mind together with the performer.

Jo Hellier is a Bristol based contemporary artist working with performance, installation, film and sound. She makes considered works for different public spaces, experimenting with form and narrative structure to create exchanges both personal and expansive. In developing 97 Years, Jo has worked closely with sound artist Yas Clarke, both graduated from Darlington College of Arts in 2010.

Supported by Arts Council England and MAYK Bristol
Part of the Spill National Showcase 2012 and Spill Showcase 2013

‘Irresistibly invites engagement’ Exeunt Magazine

‘The composition of sound, film and performance has a light touch yet enormous emotional weight’ Total Theatre