the vacuum cleaner (James Leadbitter) is an artist and activist who makes candid, provocative and playful work. His work combines madpride and disability justice organizing, direct action, and deep ecology, but always with a lightness and silliness. Over the last 12 years he has focused on design of mad spaces, organizing and crip aesthetics. Often working with large groups including young people, health professionals and different communities, his art and activism aims to challenge and change how mental health is understood, treated, and experienced.

With roots in activism and radical art, the vacuum cleaner has created one-man interventions and large-scale actions as well as performance, installation, and film. His work has been shown in galleries, theatres, hospitals and schools and has appeared on streets, within social movements and in public spaces internationally. Recent commissions include Manchester International Festival (2023), Chisenhale Gallery (2022) and Wellcome Collection (2021). Selected performances, exhibitions and festivals include Grand Rapids Art Museum (Michigan), Spielart Festival (Munich), Gessnerallee/Festspiele (Zurich), Steirischer Herbst (Graz), Politik im Freien Theater (Munich), National Gallery of Indonesia, Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zurich), Whitechapel Gallery (London). Project sites for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) include Ormond Street Hospital, Broadmoor Hospital and Edinburgh Royal Hospital for Children and Young People.