T. J. Bacon

Dr Tōmei June Bacon (publishing as T. J. Bacon, she/her) is an artist-philosopher working across performance art, visual art, and socially engaged practice. She also creates artwork under the moniker tjb.

A leading voice in the phenomenological study of performance and visual art, she is the author of two landmark books: An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Performance Art: SELF/s (Intellect/Chicago University Press, 2022/24) and The Phenomenology of Blood in Performance Art (Routledge, 2025).

Her research foregrounds transgender studies and phenomenology in dialogue with queer theory, crip theory, disaster studies, and speculative futures. Through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods, her work spans visual art, performance, activism, and curation.

With a practice rooted in the elemental and esoteric, she has exhibited internationally for over two decades. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Tempting Failure, which has supported experimental visual art, performance, and sonic art on a global scale since 2012.

Tōmei recently completed a Research Residency at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), where she remains as Professor of Contextual Studies. She is also founder of the Trans+ Virtual Centre of Excellence.