Her practice has also included performance and installation, critical writing, curating and teaching. Born 1952 in St Maixent, France, Elwes attended the Slade School of Art and the Royal College of Art during the late 1970s and early 1980s. This followed a period in the late 1960s and early 1970s in which the political climate led some artists to question the authority of the art object. Concurrently the use of alternative media such as performance and installation became widespread. Elwes became interested in these forms, as well as the debates around feminism, which has been an abiding concern in her work. Indeed, Elwes was involved with the Women Artists' Collective and Women's Arts Alliance and played a curatorial role in two landmark feminist exhibitions: Women's Images of Men and About Time, both at the ICA in London in 1980, the latter devoted entirely to video and time-based media. Recently she has acted as Director of the UK Canadian Film and Video Exchange, a biennial event that connects video artists from across Canada and the United Kingdom.