Artist on artist: Francis Patrick Brady on Lee Mingwei

Francis Patrick Brady is an artist who invites people to create gold, join a secret society, imagine themselves in a new job, build a forgetful utopian society, or sing a folk song about cryptocurrency. In this performative lecture Francis will explore the concept of the artist as a host, through story, song, and play.

Francis Patrick Brady is a performance artist and storyteller who creates and hosts game-like situations that involve the public and other artists. Whether his work asks you to imagine the concept of nothing, join a group of retired Swedish factory workers, or travel to a foreign planet full of deadly plants; his artwork questions the stories, assumptions and roles that we perform in our everyday life through satirical imaginary realms.
His side job whilst in London, and again in Copenhagen, was working as made-to-measure tailor and his visual arts practice led him to work with many different materials including fabric and sewing clothes. Creating clothing and symbols as a method to help create other worlds with alternative systems of thinking expressed through different media: sculpture, painting, folksong, storytelling, playing cards, Audio guides and Virtual Reality. He uses play and public participation as methods to challenge and engage people to question the existing rules of everyday life. Often he seeks to tell stories that complicate a generally accepted moral or common understanding of the world; engaging with seemingly simple ideas such as ‘Peace’, ‘Unemployment’, ‘Secrecy’ & ‘Robin Hood’. A good story keeps the world complicated.