Wet Mess
Lydia Garnett
Wet Mess works across drag, movement direction, theatre, and live art. In 2021, they won Not Another Drag Competition (Royal Vauxhall Tavern) and have since been largely working in draft, cabaret and nightlife. In 2023, they were part of Travis Alabanza’s Sound of the Underground (Royal Court) and Emma Frankland’s Galatea at Brighton Festival. In 2018, they won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with ThisEgg.
Their films have been funded by Jerwood Arts and screened at Thunderdance, Raindance, London Short Film Festival, ICA and The Photographers Gallery and won multiple awards.
As a Movement Director, their work has included choreographic videos for Will Young and London Grammar. As a performer, they have worked internationally with Pester & Rossi, Monster Chetwynd, Donna Huanaca, Oriana Fox, Cecile B Evans, Molly Palmer, Beth Kettel, Bhebhe&Davies, Joseph Bond and Rebecca Lloyd-Evans.
Solo and collaborative works have been shown in a variety of contemporary contexts such as the Tate Britain, The Southbank, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Battersea Arts Centre, The Place, Shoreditch Town Hall, Walker Gallery, and Baltic39.
TESTO
2023- tour ongoing
Wet Mess (Concept, performance, and choreography), Baby Daddy (Sound Design), Jordan Sherman (Costume & Set Design), Nancy May Roberts & Lucia Fortune-Ely, Metal & Water (Production)
In TESTO, Wet Mess Wet Messifies the messiness of life with teeth and one chin hair; exploring transitions, testosterone, the edges of drag, the blurry line between performance and reality, character and self, and the magical in the mundane. Meet me at the computer of confused edges, for some guttural sexuality, too many images, where the made up shit becomes real.
Wearing our insides on the outsides, and waiting for the hateful crunchy key change. Expect moustache meals, desktop dreams, dykey desires, underwhelming overwhelm, trotting, lolling, humping, titting, farting, pinching at the dull flesh of life here and here and here and here and here and here. It's quite like, uh, I just back away, I, don’t perceive me, I'm in the wall.
Hoping you will understand Sincerely Wet xx
kunstraum