Jonathan Trayner’s work explores the relationship between, technology, image, and political subjectivity. His work is performative and driven by a thread of serious research that is played off against the surreal and the ridiculous. This is a response to what he sees as an unresolved issue within art, of it being both a philosophical investigation into the structure of culture(s) and a form of gratification as either spectacle or fetishised object. One of his key sources of inspiration is The Twelve Articles of the Upper Swabian Peasants, a political manifesto from the German Peasants’ War of 1525 and one of the first secular manifestoes to receive widespread, print-based distribution, through which the peasantry presented their political desires in their own words and images.
These prints accompany the performance, Vladimir Putin; Master of Animals, and all the animals depicted have been photographed with Putin. The intention of the prints is to recapture and transfer Putin's charismatic aura.
A performance for video showing an early morning ritual. The area around the fire pit is cleared of the night's detritus and swept, after which the performer returns to enact a dance.
A five act opera for robots based on Berta Lasks' play "Thomas Münzer". This work explores themes of labour, automation, and the communicability of ideas.
A performance lecture exploring the idea that Vladimir Putin is the premier artist of the Russian people and that he draws his shamanic power from the interactions with the animals that he is often photographed with.
2016 V.D.M.I.Æ. Casual Listening, London
2012 Temporary Autonomous Zone, Construction Gallery, London
2008 The Ten Thousand Questions, University of the Arts, London
2017 Seasons, Maxilla Space, London
2017 Seven Hour Render, Thames Tower, Reading
2016 How to Read: Writing Groups, Five Years, London
2015 Guerrilla Sculpture Park, Tremolo Projects, London
2015 The Protagonists, NIASH, Hastings
2014 The Centre for Remote Possibilities, Matt’s Gallery, London
2014 Radioscopie: Medium as Metaphor, KARST, Plymouth
2013 Centenarians, ASC Projects, London Century City, ESA Showspace, London
2012 Exercises with Five Years, Tate Modern, London
2012 Die weiße Residenz, Gemeinschaftshaus Gropiusstadt, Berlin
2011 Communist Gallery Television, Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich
2010 Supermarket, Kulturhuset, Stockholm Market Estate Project, London
2009 Peking Duck or Video in Time of Crisis, Videoholica, Varna, Bulgaria
2009 Viking Mountain Funeral, The Celestial Suitcase, New York
2008 In Reality & Fiction, Espaço Polivalente, Lisbon Art is not Mute, HIT, Gothenburg, Sweden
2008-2013 Regular contributor to the Communist Gallery and Propeller Island performance and screening events
2008-2013 Involved with post-education Free School group.
2016 How to Read: Writing Groups. How to Write: Reading Groups, Five Years London
2014 This is not Public, Five Years, London
2013 Cabin Call, Publication Studios, Vancouver, Canada (Im)possible School Book: As Found, Five Years, London
2010 Propeller Island 3: The Gossipy Guide, Propellor Island, London
2017 Silchester Roman site, Fine Art and Archaeology dept. project, Hampshire
2014 Downstairs Residency Programme, Great Brampton House, Herefordshire
2012 Corbin Union Residency, British Columbia, Canada ACE Artists International Development Fund
2010 Sandarbh, Partapur, India Pilotprojekt Gropiusstadt, Berlin CRIR, Christiania, Copenhagen
