Meet Katy Baird: artist, activist, and one of Steakhouse Live founders. Her solo and collaborative performances have seen her start up a protest agency and examine labour (that thing we do in exchange for money); cast your eye over the artists Steakhouse programmes and you’ll find nationality, gender, class, sexuality (and other measures of normativity) tackled and disassembled on regular bases. In the aftermath of that prophetic exit poll though, she’s taking to the streets.

Stirred up by the election results, Steakhouse has initiated the Live Art Bloc – an invitation to ‘artist, allies and friends’ to gather before the 20 June National Demo to ponder (and attend) together. The doors are open to people and ideas – but the thinking goes beyond the arts to cover all shades of the austerity narrative. The first meeting is scheduled for 15 June – read on for more background and future plans. 

Run Riot: Can you introduce us Steakhouse Live and its origin story?

Katy Baird: Steakhouse Live is a community of artists and producers creating new spaces to show exciting and challenging live work. Over the last two years we have programmed performances in parks, streets, fields, art galleries, fetes, yards, warehouses, artist studios and established arts venues. We are also currently in the process of launching 'Live in London' - an online calendar keeping people updated on what performance related events are happening in London. 

Steakhouse Live was initially set it up because we were exasperated that many artists whose work we loved were not getting opportunities to present their work in London - so we decided to stop feeling frustrated and just do it ourselves.  Since then we have worked with over 80 artists and put on 15 events. I guess this DIY approach underpins a lot of what we do and is the driving force behind our new undertaking ‘Live Art Bloc’ - a call for artists, allies and friends to meet and march together at the End Austerity Now National Demonstration on Saturday 20th June in London. 

Run Riot: How does activism feed into your performance practice? 

Katy Baird: For me the lines between activist and artist are very blurred. It was through my involvement in activism and in particular my collaborative work with the artist Lucy Hutson that I began to find my voice as an artist. In 2006 we set up the art activist collectives M.U.F.F. and later Kinetic Aesthetic. During this time I also came into contact with the Vacuum Cleaner whose activism was very much rooted in an art practice and this really opened my eyes to new contexts and audiences for my work and a sudden realisation that what we were doing was also art!  

Since then I have set up a Protest Agency – in which we attempted to get people to pay us to protest - and have also concentrated on my solo work which is more personal and intimate in nature but is still very firmly rooted in my politics and finding alternative ways to look at how we see ourselves and live our lives. My recent solo performance Workshy, which I will be touring next year, is a studio based performance about work and the things we do for money and is looking at ideas around class and aspiration through the lens of labour. 

Run Riot: How did you come to the idea of forming the Live Art Bloc? What’s the thinking behind it?  Is it open to non-artists as well? Does Steakhouse have a plan for it after June 20th?

Katy Baird: After the general election I was angry – angry mostly with myself for being a total idiot and not realising that online I have completely surrounded myself by people who only think like me. So we decided that we wanted to get off the Internet and back on to the streets starting with the End Austerity Now National Demonstration on Saturday 20th June.  We are hoping that by getting artists, allies and friends to march together in one Live Art Bloc we will be able to communicate directly with each other about what we are thinking and feeling. We also think it's important to be with other groups in the march and to stand in solidarity together because the arts getting cut, social welfare getting cut, housing provision getting cut is all linked together and it’s everyone’s problem. Also we thought that ultimately everything is always more fun when you are in a group. 

I honestly don’t know what the next steps will be for Live Art Bloc - that depends on who wants to be involved - all we are hoping for at the moment is that by getting everyone together in one place we can at least start a conversation. We very much see this as a first step.   

Run Riot: The first Live Art Bloc meet-up is scheduled for June 15th - can you tell us about it?

Katy Baird: As a way to motivate people ahead of the march to meet, talk, think and be inspired we thought we would organise a screening of the brilliant feature documentary Just Do It – a tale of modern-day outlaws, a film that looks at activism and in particular direct action. This will be followed by a discussion with the film's editor and the activist collective of one James Leadbitter aka the Vacuum Cleaner. We will also discuss Live Art Bloc and make arrangements for the demonstration the following Saturday. 

The screening will take place in Hackney Wick at the Live Art Development Agency (where I work) who have very kindly let us use their Study Room for the evening.  Doors open at 6.30pm and the film will begin 7pm sharp - please bring popcorn. 

Run Riot: Do you think live art and performance have been responsive to major debates and crises over the last five years? Outside of direct action and within realms of artistic practice - how do you see the social responsibility and agency of artists?

Katy Baird: I believe that Live Art is not an artform or a discipline but a way of thinking and interacting with the world. I see it as a refuge of sorts for artists that are not easily identifiable or classified.  Artists who are working at the edges of more traditional artistic forms and who are continually responding to what is happening in a very immediate way make us think about what it means to be here now and in this moment – this for me makes it inherently political. Live Art is vast and varied, so ultimately its response is also vast and varied. 

If I am honest I don’t think artists have more of a social responsibility than anyone else. I think ultimately we all have a social responsibility. I was recently at LATEWI: Look At The (E)state We Are In - a symposium in Peckham exploring art and activism in public spaces - and when asked about his responsibility as an artist Jordan McKenzie said he may be an artist but he is also a citizen and this really struck a chord with me. 

Run Riot: What are your fears and hopes for arts in the next five years? Where do you see Steakhouse going in that period?

Katy Baird: With the austerity narrative in full swing there is uncertainty around funding and where money will come from, so there will be a lot of tightening of financial belts which of course will effect artists in a big way, but It is not just about the money. A conservative austerity outlook encourages a culture of less risk-taking and the shutting down of any type of radical possibilities and this is happening not just in the arts, but right across the board. This is why as artists and producers we need to keep pushing and making our own contexts for our work. I do worry though about how sustainable working in a self-organised way is but perhaps it’s not meant to last and that is the strength of it - so many communities like Steakhouse Live have come and gone over the years. All I know is that we are totally living in the present with Steakhouse Live and literally taking it one event at a time. 

Run Riot: Some might argue that 2015 London is no 1968 Paris. What do you expect from June 20th? What do you hope happens to that energy after the protest?

Katy Baird: When I was a little girl I was taken on many marches by my parents – pro-miners, anti-apartheid, poll-tax, and at the time many thought those demos were not changing anything directly but there is no doubt that they did in many ways. The action of getting together, of creating new networks, of feeling that you are physically doing something and that you are not alone can have a long lasting impact and legacy. It feels like there is a real momentum at the moment with recent protests like Reclaim Brixton, Focus E15, the National Gallery Rally, FOTJA, RVT Future and Living Wage: Living Staff galvanising people to fight back. Now is the time we need to start to act and think about how we can create a bigger resistance network. We are hoping that the Live Art Bloc will be the first step in bringing people together in the same place and that this in some way may motivate us to think about action that can happen in the future.

Live Art Bloc

20 June (first meet-up 15 June at LADA)

Bank of England

Steakhouse: Tender Loin #2

Toynbee Studios

9 July

Photo: Rachel Segal Hamilton