Sue Tompkins's Spoken-Word Art and Life Without Buildings' TikTok Revival

Sue Tompkins, a Glasgow-based artist originally from Leighton Buzzard, England, creates spoken-word performances that explore language's affective possibilities through repetition, glitching, and rhythmic phonemes. Her work, described as transient sculpture, draws from modernist influences like Gertrude Stein while maintaining a casual yet profound delivery. Tompkins studied at Glasgow School of Art in the early-to-mid 1990s and later fronted the art-school band Life Without Buildings, which released the album Any Other City in 2001 and a live recording from Sydney's Annandale Hotel in 2007. The band recently experienced a viral resurgence on TikTok, boosted by musician Beabadoobee, with young women using 15-second clips of their song The Leanover in videos. Tompkins expressed happiness about this development, noting the sense of freedom it conveyed. Her visual art includes paintings like All the Time (2018) and Skype Wont Do (2013), where color and gesture serve as silent analogues for phrasing, and non-linguistic works such as chiffon pieces with zips. Other band members include bassist Chris Evans, guitarist Robert Dallas Gray (aka Robert Johnston), and drummer Will Bradley. A 2012 performance during Glasgow International at a pub showcased her energetic, pacing style, leaving a memorable impression of aliveness. Tompkins's approach hides effort to emphasize the theatrical value of the seemingly throwaway.