Shawn Nayar is a performing artist who traces queer diasporic histories to expose the violence embedded in their colonial fractures. As these histories are tumultuous, his body of work contorts to capture them by facilitating critical discourse across intrinsic movement pieces, multimedia installations, and performance lectures.
His work is innately malleable and adaptable to different sites – activated installations in contemporary art spaces morph into interactive performances in queer clubs, adapting to their environments while facilitating critical discourse. By allowing his body to inhabit different facets of a complex lived experience, he creates collective encounters that encourage audiences to engage with historical legacies in the present moment.
His current inquiry, titled The Mongrel, explores Anglo-Indian identity shaped by British colonial rule. Through visceral choreography and live vocals rooted in somatic practices, the work confronts inherited histories of exclusion and resistance, transforming ritual and intensity into acts of radical self-care that disrupt and reimagine colonial legacies. Nayar will present the first offerings of the project in 2025, beginning with an installation for Eastside Projects Summer Camp show, Birmingham and a performance premiere at Take Me Somewhere in Glasgow this October.
Nayar’s work has been presented internationally, notably performing at Actoral Festival in Marseille as part of a focus on Scottish performance. He has presented work at Buzzcut Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival and Jupiter Artland. Nayar is also deeply embedded in the club scene as a resident of Ponyboy Glasgow and as a returning performer at Riposte in London.
On Eigg, Shawn will use the physicalities of stillness to explore upheaval and confrontation within his current performative inquiry, using the character of the Mongrel.
