Tom Marshman and his Legs Eleven

Photo credit Boyd Alexander

Back in June, we introduced you to performance artist Tom Marshman and encouraged you all to vote for his wonderful legs in the Pretty Polly Legs Eleven facebook competition. Tom made it through to the finalists and was whisked up to London for a snazzy hoisery photoshoot where he met the other finalists and also the judges (including designer Henry Holland) who announced the winner that day. Watch the video below to find out who won, but before you do, read what Tom has to say about it:

“I am a performance artist I am based in Bristol.  You can see a little bit more about my work at my website, www.tommarshman.com which is still being developed but it gives you a little flavour of my work. My work in essence is low camp; often theatre based shows, (often involving a lot of dressing up and down) but always has an element of autobiography within it. The pieces are playful and heartfelt.

This year, I had both my legs operated on, to remove my varicose veins, it’s a condition that is hereditary and whilst recovering I decided to make a performance about Legs. I see legs as metaphors for journey’s pathways and life choices, and there was something about the medical language used that fascinated me. I saw metaphor in blood flow and surgical knifes breaking skin. I decided to call my show Legs 11, quite catchy and familiar I thought. Then my house mate showed me a competition on facebook, which was a quest to find Pretty Polly’s Legs ambassador. Pretty Polly is a brand that has a childhood nostalgia for me; it’s associated with whizzing around the supermarket as a little boy in the back of the supermarket trolley while mum shopped! It’s a brand that I felt was quintessentially English, which I appealed to me.

The competition was also called Legs 11; it was a hard decision, to enter this one! Basically I entered it partly as research for my new show of the same name, but also because I was genuinely curious to see what might happen if I, a man who’s getting near 40, intervened in a system that wasn’t intended for me. The users of facebook voted for the best pair of legs, I was voted in because I had a lot of votes for me. I was very encouraged to see all my friends vote for me.

I think there have been lots of raised eyebrows, about what I have been up to. I think a lot of people have found it a lot of fun. There are a few serious points I am making, not just with entering the competition but with the show itself, about beauty and embarrassment for your body (I am also due to appear on channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, 26^th September).  The act of entering the competition and the fallout from it works on a few levels, but my intention was to be a playful agent provocateur (and I am not talking about the lingerie manufacturer!)

I believe that we all have the right to express ourselves in the way that feels right to us (as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else). I like wearing tights, I also like wearing sailor’s uniforms, swimming trucks, roller blades, outrageous sunglasses, wigs, and cowboy hats… the list is endless.

There has been some interesting discussion on the thread that follows the YouTube film, which in part reinforces that there are some small minded people in the world, but I try not to let that stop me doing exactly what I want to.”

Tom Marshman will be performing Legs Eleven (work-in-progress) at Riverside Studios on 22nd October 2011. More info here.