Disabled, trans sculptor and drag king Kitt (AKA Lady Kitt) does ‘Mess Making As Social Glue’.
Driven by insatiable curiosity about the social functions of art, and shaped by a semi-nomadic childhood (which included not receiving formal education until age 14). Kitt works on long term, collaborative endeavours. Crafting situations where sculptures offer solutions, solace, connections and mischief.
Projects usually include large-scale, vibrant installations made with recycled fabric, fresh flowers and raw clay. Kitt calls these “radgie* shrines”. They become settings for performances, meals, meetings, rituals and workshops. They are inspired by English folk traditions, roadside shrines Kitt experienced as a child in Portugal and 1980s council house décor.
The overarching ambition of Kitt’s work is to make space for people to clart on** (creatively, physically and conceptually). Offering opportunities to forge shared understandings and enthusiasms through gentle, creative, collaborative chaos.
The work is led by Preposterous Propositions. For example: “sculptures cure pain” or “climate crisis will be solved by drag kings’. The outrageous un-achievability of these invites collaborators/ audiences to imagine (and embody) unexpected ways of doing things. Kitt considers this approach to be inherently queer and crip.
A recent example is ‘Feral Alchemies’ (commissioned by Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark) during which Kitt turned a town centre bench into a lusciously soft, Rococo fantasy (offering a comfortable resting place for people with chronical pain conditions). The project created a set of circumstances where people involved used crafting skills and artistic activism to make their local public architecture more accessible (and more camp).
*Radgie: Pitmatic term from North East England (where Kitt is from) meaning wild/ angry person or action. Recently reclaimed, particularly by working class communities to mean free thinking / creatively unrestrained.
**Clart on: Pitmatic meaning “mess about / play with”
Brief Biog:
Recent projects have been commissioned by God's House Tower, Southampton, UK ('While We Slumber'), The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark, USA (‘Feral Alchemies’, 2025-6) QUEERCIRCLE, London (‘Dancing with Paper’ as part of Critical Crafts 2024), Craftspace, Birmingham (‘Drag Declares Emergency’ 2022-23), Arts&Heritage (“This, our hive of voices” 2020-22) & BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (‘enSHRINE SAFEDI’ 2021).
Kitt's work has been shown at Atlanta Contemporary (USA), Saatchi Gallery (UK) and National Centre on Restorative Justice (USA)
Kitt is founding member of disabled artist led art rabble “kin collective” (North East Culture Awards “Newcomer of the Year” winner 2022). Previously Kitt has served as trustee for several organisations including Crafts Council, UK and as member of the MIMA Advisory Board
Kitt's work is featured in critic and curator Hettie Judah’s most recent book “How To Enter The Art World…” (Hoxton Mini Press, 2026).
Kitt has been shortlisted for the 2025 Creative Health and Wellbeing ‘Practising Well Award’ and was Visual Artist of the Year finalist in the NE Culture Awards, 2024. Their work has won the VAMHN Arts Award 2023, been longlisted for the 2023, 2024 & 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize.
More info:
The main structure of the installations Kitt creates are often made with a small group or community. Other people are then invited to visit, and encouraged to add to the spaces with objects and actions. These shrines are not considered by Kitt to be religious places, but they can open and hold space for mystical doings and beings.
The interconnecting shapes which make up Kitt's shrines (both large and small scale), are inspired by the complex knot work of Anglo-Saxon objects found in Durham and Northumberland, where Kitt spend some of their childhood. The intricately woven patterns in things like the Bamburgh Bird were created to provide protection from evil spirits by catching bad magic in their writhing mesh. The works have been commissioned by galleries, historic sites, outdoor festivals, sets for performance work & private collections. Kitt ask people they’re working with “which part of your event, space or work most needs protection or care?”. The answer often informs the physical placing, and conceptual framing, of the work.
Kitt is drawn to the term ‘Neo Rococo’, or as they term it in relation to their own work ‘Folk-oco’- luxuriating in visual pleasures of luscious colours, sinuous ornamentation and rich undulating excess of fabrics. Playing with presentations of decadence whilst using recycled, reused and foraged materials, a practice described by composer Bridie Jackson as “Ethical Excess”. Kitt links this to other types of making which subvert capitalist measures of opulence. Like noninstitutionalized cultures of Ballroom, drag and North Eastern jazz marching bands.
Kitt uses crafting, performance and research to create objects, interactions and events, the wild, overarching ambition of all the work is to mischievously re-craft spaces and systems. Focussing on facilitating experiences and approaches which are access-centred, environmentally thoughtful and creatively untamed.
Some stuff that has happened as part of this work is:
· Raw clay paddling pool dances (“Pleasure Imprints” 2026)
· Policy changes (“enSHRINE Project” 2020-on )
· An international, ecofeminist art magazine for, and by, children (“(small but) FIERCE”)
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