PERFORMANCE artist Bryony Kimmings is certain of one thing - Brighton's performance will all end in tears.

Credible Likeable Superstar Rolemodel began two years ago as a collaboration with her nine-year-old niece Taylor.

And Thursday will be the last time the two perform the show together, as Taylor prepares for big school in September.

"At the end of the show she packs her bag and leaves the auditorium, which is so emotional for me every time," says Kimmings. "We all know that moment from growing up.

"In Brighton though it will be the last time she will ever leave the auditorium - I think I might literally die on stage."

Kimmings was inspired to create the show by a playground conversation at a Battersea school.

"I was asking some girls about their aspirations," remembers Kimmings. "They wanted to be on The Only Way Is Essex. They pretended to have a dog on a lead and a WAG bag. I thought it was such a limited vision of what a woman could be."

The result is a departure for Kimmings whose previous shows have seen her tackle her own attitudes to sex and booze.

She employed Taylor to create the titular role model Catherine Bennett - a pop star palaeontologist.

"It was the opposite of how the music business tells kids how to think and feel," says Kimmings. "I asked Taylor to choose out of a list of personality traits what this role model would have and created this story around a human being."

The pair told each other stories and drew pictures, with Taylor even deciding that Bennett's bedroom should be blue in colour.

"To a nine-year-old the colour of the walls is important," says Kimmings, adding it was also decided Catherine likes tuna pasta. "We took these pictures and put them into the character."

The story of Bennett's creation was turned into a documentary-style show for children.

The young audiences helped pen Bennett's song The Future, talking about how they would like to see the world.

"One four-year-old wanted an endless summer, while a boy wanted people who died to come back to life," says Kimmings. "It turned out he had lost a friend at school in a shock accident, and had obviously been thinking about it, although he hadn't said much before. Children are fascinating, but they rarely get asked for their opinions."

Bennett makes an appearance towards the end of this Brighton show which is aimed at an adult audience.

"It's a show about what makes a good role model," says Kimmings. "It's abstract, sometimes we talk about it explicitly, but also try to show theatrically what we are doing to children in a forceful and dark way."

To underline her age in an increasingly sexualised world Taylor is always present - albeit occasionally blindfolded or wearing noise-cancelling headphones when the subject matter is unsuitable, such as the list of unsuitable topics Kimmings found on Taylor's family-filtered iPad while searching out key words for sex and growing up.

"It's stuff we would roll our eyes at - but when there's a nine-year-old in front of you it's really poignant and moving. It makes you angry."

Perhaps the most stark example is a dance Taylor showed her aunt to a song by Katy Perry.

"It was a really sexy and explicit dance, but she had no idea what she was doing," says Kimmings. "There was a line where Katy says 'You really turn me on' and she made up a dance move like she was turning a dial on an oven."

Kimmings worked closely with her family to ensure Taylor was kept safe and not exposed to anything unsuitable.

As for the future Kimmings would love to work with her niece again. I want to see the kind of person she becomes," she says.

"I'm not sure she wants to be a performance artist - she wants to be a midwife."

Kimmings is in discussions about putting her alter ego Catherine Bennett on television.

And she is now working with young men, aged between 16 and 25, for the male perspective.

"Boys are seeing women in the way mass media wants them to," says Kimmings. "I want to turn the boys into a feminist peace army - although it's really early days!"

Duncan Hall