Annette Foster

 Over the past nine years Annette Foster have been creating multimedia solo performance pieces. She has many diverse forms of expression, performance,live art, video, sound, installation, dance, writing, costume design, painting, drawing, and object making. 

Annette has a B.A. in fine Arts fro Montana State University and a MFA in Multimedia performance from Arizona State University. In July 2002 She was awarded a Forward Thinking Artistic Fellowship, which has allowed her to move to Nottingham from Seattle, Washington USA and has given her the freedom to experiment with her artistic ideas and challenge herself in new ways.

From September 2003- Feburary 2005 Annette created ‘A Trilogy of Intimacy’; a series of one-one performances: ‘Destiny’, ‘High Tea’ and ‘Desire’. This series of performances and costumes are influenced by the history of dolls concerned with issues of Victorian representation, desire, voyeurism, sexuality, and fairytale.This trilogy was supported by the Arts Council of England in collaboration with costume designer Nadia Malik and Sculptor Ottis Strumey . Desire exploring the history of hysteria,sexuality and the hidden tensions of social interactions. Desire muses about the swoon and the lives of the hysteric women in the black and white photographic iconography of Salpêtrière asylum. ‘High Tea’ a performance based on the English obsession with serving Tea and includes a giant tea trolley with an entire tea set hidden underneath her dress and when she lifts her skirt to reveal her secrets the intrigue begins. And ‘Destiny’, a flirtous performance that draws you into a strange world of 19th century decadence, flirtation, obsession and fairytale.

“Annette Foster’s work draws on the imagery of fairy tales, Victoriana, de Sade and the history of pornography. In performances that are theatrical, intimate and unsettling, she explores sexuality, memory, voyeurism and the hidden tensions of social interaction. Costumes are used to create characters that suggest particular archetypes, values or emotional states. The performing character, often exotic in appearance, acts as a channel for the revelation of secrets and memories.”

Tim Harrison
Performance and Live Art Co-ordinator- Arnofini, Bristol, UK