Dreamers Dance

Dreamers Dance is a premiere of an ambitious, experimental, installation dance performance at ArtWork Atelier, Salford, Thursday 19th April at 8.45pm (performance start time, please arrive at least 15 minutes before).

Taking place at twilight to take us from the ‘real’ to the dream world, this one-night only performance brings together light and text artist Elisa Artesero, electronic music producer Caro C, choreographer Belinda Grantham, director Graham Hicks and dancers from UCEN.

Set around Artesero’s large-scale installation DREAMERS in the industrial setting of artist studios, ArtWork Atelier in Salford, a small selection of viewers will be taken through from sleep into dream, a dance in the liminal space of twilight to the edge of night.

Artesero has designed the production to work with the fading twilight in her lighting design, with a new musical score produced by Caro C supporting the original choreography by Grantham, Hicks, and the 10 young dancers.

This is a FREE event, but spaces are limited, so booking is essential https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/venue/FKDLMF

Note the main performance is at 8.45pm to work together with the fading twilight, the 7pm option is mainly for students or others who cannot make the main performance. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before for a short introduction and to ensure everyone is in place for a prompt start.

Access: The site-specific nature of this performance, in a building set for demolition, means that it is not fully accessible to wheelchair users. Stairs access the top floor space, and unfortunately there is no passenger lift.

Here’s a little teaser video with some of Caro’s music:

Curating ‘Stroke Stories’ at Victoria Baths

Throughout 2015 I worked on a project with stroke survivors. This included workshops including creative writing, visual arts, photography and music. I ran the visual arts workshops and also curated exhibitions of the work produced throughout the project at Manchester Central Library and the Manchester Museum. (You can learn more about the background to the project and the first exhibitions I curated here.) This year, I was asked to curate an even larger exhibition of the work produced to be exhibited at the historic Manchester Victoria Baths. Below is my curatorial statement and pictures from the exhibition:

The exhibition was curated around the theme of ‘transformation’. A stroke is a profound and life changing event. It creates challenges, both practical and emotional, that need to be faced and processed by both the survivor and those close to them. A profound transformation has taken place and this is reflected in the artwork produced.

Responding to the site of Victoria Baths as a space that was traditionally used for health and wellbeing treatments, the theme of transformation was a natural fit. When it came to the presentation of the work I wanted to create a visual metaphor that visitors would physically interact with and understand even before seeing the artwork.

A curtain was an apt symbol for the space because in the Baths people would change from one state to another, from their daytime clothes to swimming costumes, to cleanse and relax. Participants’ portraits were printed large on gauze and hung around the baths. Behind each picture was a banner of their artwork to tell their individual stories of life before and after stroke. Visitors could view beyond the outward appearance of each person by lifting the curtain. From curtains at the hospital, to curtains at home, to the metaphorical curtains we use to hide elements of ourselves from others. Here we were ‘lifting the curtain’ on stroke.

From the 880 visitors to the exhibition over the weekend we received extremely positive feedback. The interactivity of the exhibition worked to create a physical pause and a longer engagement with each piece than if the work had been immediately accessible. For the participants themselves, it was a culmination of the project, their progress, and an opportunity to see their work professionally mounted in a building of cultural and historic significance. A moment to feel proud of their talents, journey, and accomplishments.

Light Night Leeds 2012

We made the short hop across into Yorkshire for the Leeds Light Night last week. An evening of activities, exhibitions, installations, films and general liveliness which took place well into the dark of night across the city. The map of events was full of things to see and do, far too many for us to get around them all, so we planned some activities and stumbled across others while en route.

I was keen to visit Leeds City Art Gallery‘s ‘Drawing Sculpture‘ exhibition, which displayed work which presented a link between the act of drawing and creating sculpture. It was an interesting exhibition, supported well by the accompanying essay by Anna Lovatt in the exhibition catalogue. However, before we even stepped foot into the grand gallery building we came across a group of Indian musicians and dancers playing outside the entrance, drawing a crowd of visitors keen to have a go. At one point, when there must have been at least 100 people dancing, it felt as if we had stepped into a peculiar new type of exercise class with everyone following the moves of the main dancers.

After an autumnal soup break in the decadent tiled cafe, we put our names down for some light painting with artist David Shearing. We timed it perfectly as it was particularly popular and they had to stop admitting visitors shortly after our turn. Armed with a plethora of glowing toys we created some light drawings via projection and computer software, which mimicked the action of light painting on a camera with the shutter left open for a few seconds. Our effort wasn’t the most artistically thought out, but it was fun nonetheless!

We exited through the inflatable dome, squeezing out of the tunnel like Ace Ventura out of the Rhino’s backside. Fun, yes. Flattering, no. There was no time for embarrassment however, as we ran (responsibly) through the gallery to the showing of ‘Turning at Right Angles to Midnight’ by Andi Noble and Matt Collins. It was a beautiful glimmering delight of sound and lights.

Other highlights of the evening were the video and animation projections strewn across the walls all over the Leeds College of Art building, showcasing some exquisite talent from the young artists. Ending the evening we came across some ladies dressed in some strange attire, looking rather like beautiful zombies who were on their way home. We stopped to ask what they had been doing that evening and they told us that they were singing as they are an a cappella quartet and offered to sing us a song! They did so, and by the end of it we found that a crowd had joined us in bopping about to their smooth, smooth sound. The perfect goodbye and end to the evening.

Luminous Man Film

A while ago I posted about my luminous man which I showed as part of my final exhibition last year. I was going to work on music for the currently silent film over the summer, but a large project took up most of my time so I didn’t get to do this. I am not a musician so it’s unlikely I’ll make something completely appropriate for his creepy morphing dance; so if you make music and feel you’d like to submit some for the film then I’d love to hear it! My personal tastes tend to lean towards electronic music of the Venetian Snares/Four Tet/Aphex Twin variety, however I’m open to different styles as you never know what will fit best in the end. So please do get in touch, post links to YouTube/Soundcloud pages etc.