MARK LEAHY is a writer, artist, teacher, and project manager operating among textual practices, performance, and page-based arts.
Recent performance and live work includes ‘muster page habit’ (PW12, Bristol, May 2012), ‘Hand in Glove’ at Tempting Failure (London, Mar 2012); ‘Voice Recognition’ at Chapter and Verse Festival (Bluecoat, Liverpool, Oct 2011) and at BLOP12 (Arnolfini, Bristol, Feb 2012); and a reading at POLYply15: Colour (London, Jan 2012).
He has written texts to accompany work by other artists, including Teresa Grimaldi’s The Vacated Works (Isle of Wight, 2009), Katy Connor’s Pure Flow (Exeter, 2009), ‘Aftermath’ for Deirdre Power’s project Brokenland (Limerick, Summer 2011), and ‘With Particular Attention: Martha Winter’s material occurrences’ commissioned by Market Project (Apr 2012).
Recent critical publications include essays in Open Letter, Performance Research Journal and The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice; a chapter in The Blackwell Companion to Digital Literary Studies (2007); and an essay on John James and the visual arts in The Salt Companion to John James (2010). An essay on poetry and affect is forthcoming in The Life and Work of Thomas MacGreevy: A Critical Reappraisal (Susan Schreibman ed., Continuum, Winter 2012).
‘Swatches’, a poetry sequence was published by Acts of Language (Dec 2009), and texts have appeared in UK and US journals, and online including ‘Guaranteed Insurance’ for Mocksim’s Yearly Print series. ‘After Durer after Mantegna’, an emblem combining text and image, was installed in the Window Work series at DXDX Studios, Plymouth (Aug 2011). Curated projects include ‘Public Pages’ for the conference Poetry and Public Language (University of Plymouth, 2007).
He was Director of Writing at Dartington College of Arts (2005-2007), and was MA Programme Leader at Dartington Campus, University College Falmouth (2007-2010). He teaches part-time and supervises PhD students at University College Falmouth, and works freelance as a writer and an arts project manager.