Join us for two performance readings: Sha-la-la by Uma Breakdown and RULED BY VENUS by Alex Quicho.

‘Sha-la-la is a horror story I read on a forum about a disciplinary meeting, or an assessment for something, or what seemed like therapy but might not have been. I can’t remember the specifics because medication has damaged my memory, but I’ve got something of a mnemonic routine that should summon it back again. So it’s a science fiction story about an appraisal, or an interrogation, or re-calibration, and there’s the handler and the agent who go through the debrief and there’s a lot of codes and boxes to tick which make it feel a lot like a survival horror game, which everything on the internet is to some degree, IMO.’ — Uma Breakdown.

‘RULED BY VENUS is a performative reading about a girl who is killed by her loving double—where the pleasure of being known comes with the violence of being copied, consumed and changed. In the vein of erotic thrillers, Youtube subliminals, and mythological katabasis (descent into the underworld), and incorporating a distorted dialogue, alien imagery, and atmospheric sound, RULED BY VENUS invites audiences into the annihilation of inhuman devotion. In collaboration with Carlo Quicho (CGI film) and Oxhy (score).’ — Alex Quicho

Uma Breakdown is an artist, writer and award winning game designer interested in animals, horror and play. Everything she makes is about some combination of love, grief, hallucination and an excess of joy.

Alex Quicho is a theorist and research director in London. Her practice incorporates critical writing, performative lectures, and moving image to focus on how emerging technologies warp social reality and vice-versa. She is the author of Girlstack (2023–) and Small Gods (2020).

This event is part of a series of performances taking place at Raven Row over the summer, from July to September.

Uma Breakdown and Alex Quicho