2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
a holiday ritual inspired by my family’s tradition of putting on a talent show in the small town i grew up in. each year guests are asked to dress up in old-time-y costumes and share an unpretentious performance
2012-present
i turn people into refrigerator magnets, they make poetry with their words
2013, 2015, 2019
brooklyn, los angeles
participants create and perform circus acts through the lens of the surrealist movement
featuring acts such as: the lion tamer taming the crowd using her 'exquisite corpse game', a poetic medicine man curing the crowd with elixirs , the (us national improv team) strongmen performing feats of 'emotional strength’,a John Philip Sousa-marching clown, a happening by Captain Hippo, an absurdist play , a sheepherder's song and menagerie, spontaneous group flocking led by Funkle Todd, photographic assemblages, a surrealist caricature artist, a sinister mime, a juggler who juggled: eating yogurt, eating his own theatre reviews, doing an exercise from a men's health magazine, and reading feminist quotes
2008-present
paint on bodies
108 poems from a heartbreak chapter
full project on instagram @brittoncircus
2021
i paint circus performers’ acts on their own faces.
Justin Therrien: sword swallower and mime & Nikki Laumb: ringmaster and aerialist
are you a circus performer and would like me to paint you on you? please reach out!
2008 (art institute of chicago)
can a painting have a point of view?
i found four 18th-century commissioned portraits by 'unknown artists' within the Art Institute Collection but not currently on display and brought those paintings to life on the faces of performers. the paintings were given free reign and told to ‘install themselves’ in the galleries in which they felt they belonged. some interacted with museum patrons or stood completely still. while tourists snapped photos, the security guards became concerned by the presence of our moving canvases and eventually asked the paintings to leave the museum
a halloween project to literalize facing one’s fear. participants were asked to describe a great fear and i bring it to life on their face.