Can art and bartending really mix as careers? Stack Magazines at St Bride Foundation Briony Godivala скачать в хорошем качестве

Can art and bartending really mix as careers? Stack Magazines at St Bride Foundation Briony Godivala

Recorded live at the St Bride Foundation on Thursday 5th February 2026, Briony Godivala reads her story for Piscine magazine about her year-long project, The Ink Link. A bartender and performance artist, Briony had a QR code tattooed on her arm, and allowed strangers to dictate which sites it should point to. The performance was aided by her customer-facing job in hospitality, where she gained a new audience every day. The Performance of Labour The "real world" of being a working artist means dealing with full-time jobs, and the long, unnatural hours of bartending drain not only physical but also mental energy. Inspired by Tehching Hsieh’s durational piece Time Clock Piece (1980–1981), Briony's project explores the gruelling passage of time and the constant repetition of labour under capitalism. She uses her chunky highlights – which she keeps as an homage to the animated woman at the Co-op self-checkout – as motivation to leave hospitality and become an artist. For the whole year, she worked two jobs: her bartender self and her digital artist self. The Ink Link explores what happens when you give people anonymous control over another person's body. The voting system has connected the link to everything from funny, informative, and nostalgic content to graphic content like porn, violent gore, and fascism. Working in the pub, she would transform from her bartender persona to her artist persona to explain the link, but miscommunication could lead to customers scanning the link and being shown shocking imagery. Her role is often more like an administrator – running the front desk, doing customer service, and posting on social media – than an endurance artist. Even when faced with dark content and comments like "this is self harm", she says she feels mentally disconnected, seeing herself as the administrator documenting something separate from herself. #PerformanceArt #BartendingLife #TheInkLink #Hospitality #ArtAndWork #StackMagazines #TehchingHsieh #DurationalPerformance #CreativeCareers