Emma Maye Gibson is a performance artist. She is also known as a Betty Grumble. In this powerful talk she introduces us to her performance manifesto of Thank You Body. She shares how performance, presence and energy flows through creativity and can help us to be great allies and creatures of action and compassion. Through her performance she seeks to create a hopeful utopia where audience and performer engage in a transformative exchange of love, rage, hope and sensuality. Her work is a celebration of the power of the body and its ability to challenge societal norms and bring about change. Performance can change the world. And it does. Emma Maye Gibson (AKA Betty Grumble) is a Sydney/Warrane based performance artist.
Largely through the avatar/war mask/love letter/critter of Grumble she engages her body as a hopeful and medicinal site for catharsis and pleasure. Often moving in a genre smash of ritual theatre, autobiography, cabaret, performance art and multi-media, she is a proud ecosexual and believes in art as an action of her spirituality. She has her Masters in Fine Arts/Arse and has presented work at The Sydney Opera House, Glastonbury, Edinburgh Fringe, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney & Adelaide Fringes, The Melbourne Comedy Festival, The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Griffin Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, The Bearded Tit, Red Rattler Theatre, OUTsider Festival (Austin, Texas), MoMA (NYC), Joe’s Pub (NYC), The Glory (London), LiveWorks, The Old Fitz, AsiaTOPA, Dark Mofo, Mona Foma, MCA, AGNSW, Rising Festival, Brisbane Festival, Berlin Fringe and beyond. She believes in the flesh riot, leads Grumble Boogie ‘Thank You Body’ aerobic psychic love energy dance classes and is currently engaged in developing a new work under the guidance of mentors Annie Sprinkle, Elizabeth Burton and Victoria Spence. Major works include: Sex Clown Saves The World, Love & Anger, The Unshame Machine, Grumblism, Grumble Boogie, Goddess – The Elizabeth Burton Story, Mini Beast Disco, A Composting Cabaret, 24HR Grumble Boogie & Enemies of Grooviness Eat Shit. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx