“MAKE (f)ART" is crash course, live instructional video, and meditation on how to be an artist today. Featuring experts like world renowned art maker and emotional doula, Sapphire Craouwtch(eaux)'t, "MAKE (f)ART" seeks to provide the necessary training for up and coming artists.

A derivative work of “&&&Art” (2021), an immersive video essay which focused on how the artist interacts with the commercialization of theatre, is a live "instructional" performance for how to make art or "(f)ART" in a way that is "correct" and "successful"

During my time as a CRITICAL BREAKS Artist in Residence, I developed &&&Art, an “exact” and “historically accurate” installation representing and commenting on the human artistic experience.

It sought to break down and convey what it’s like to create art in today's world through caricature. Featuring “expert” practitioner of the performing arts, Sapphire Craouwtch(eaux)’ntxchk, &&&Art is a multimedia Bouffon piece of documentary excrement theater that laughs at the commercialization of theater in America.

My love for DADA and Bouffon stems from the way it explains the problems of the world by using their ingredients. Using this theory, I decided to find a way to materialize my issues: The Popular American Theatre, The Broadway Industrial Complex, and how these systems force artists to participate in the commercialization of art which prioritizes endless mass production of content to be consumed. 

What kept pushing me forward in the creation of this work was the removal of the thing I was speaking to excellence. I used this project to follow the stories my memories were telling and allowed the ghosts of these institutions to speak directly to the camera. 

So through this work, and in my small-scale practice, I want to remind myself and other artists that we are more than our relationships to historical events, or tragedy, we ourselves are enough to write about. I wanted to encourage art for art’s sake, and help eliminate the idea that we as artists are only worthy if we are profitable, and profitable only when our art is topical.

— Jay Délise

Black, And…, which had its premiere at the Greater Manchester Fringe in 2019, is a solo spoken-word piece that has always existed to capture and artistically represent the experiences of those of us who live at intersections within our blackness. Created from the diary of a 13-year-old girl, Black, And… chronicles the highs and lows of discovering oneself and acquiring the tools to express that, and teaches us what to do when no one shows up to your birthday party.

The idea for Black, And... came from a university assessment prompt where I was asked to create a performance on identity. I found this to be difficult, considering the number of communities I belonged to. I wanted to talk about everything! I became so immensely frustrated with explaining my reasons for this show that I once yelled out loud at a lecturer that I "want[ed] to yell about black women for an hour". And, the show was born.

—Jay Délise (2019)