Opening Night July 5th, 2024
Arbeit Studios Trowbridge Gardens, 1 Trowbridge Rd, London E9 5LD
VALENTINE BORDET
I just got married/ Censored pleasure’ is a performance art piece involving movements, shibari and voice recording. The piece explores the topic of pleasure through somatic movements of contraction and expansion. It denounces the repression of female bodies and its powerful natural expression of erotism through institutions such as marriage, systemic forms of oppression, shame, abuse and violence. The performance is a journey towards liberation, reconnection, embodiment and finding power through pleasure. This is the journey of a woman, uprising, revolting, empowered to take back ownership of her body and her pleasure.
Valentine's opening performance, was electrifying, engaging and visceral. The audio boomed as audience swayed, a hypnotic and symbiotic trance.
UPRISING PV July 5th, 2024
Culture Warriors: Villains and Heroes
A POLITICAL FASHION CAT WALK BY DIANE GOLDIE
In the past 14 years of Tory government we have been subject to a dirty game of us against them as a way of keeping us divided . Marginalized groups of people were repeatedly targeted and used to spread fear amongst the masses creating a Culture War. Trans people , (less than one percent of the population ) immigrants, “woke” , disabled , neurodivergent, POC were used to whip up fear of the “ other “ .
Then came Brexit and up popped the Prince of darkness himself , the architect of division: Nigel Farage.
I’ve created this body of work over the years to highlight the roles of the villains in this War against the other ( David Cameron, BoJo, Farage, Patriarchy (and latterly Russell Brand) using humour and subversion to challenge their claim to power . The heroes are also celebrated : Greta Thunberg, Jeremy Corbyn, Sinead O Connor , Peace and Love, Frida Kahlo , Medusa , Andre 3000 , you and I , offering a solution and hope for a future that is inclusive and forward thinking.
Collaboration with the protest banners of Shireen Lianne, providing a link in with the global protest movement.
Shireen Liane
Shireen Liane is an American conceptual artist living in the UK. Working across sculpture, video & performance, her practice inhabits the space symbols and actions.. The Altered States Series began in 2016, during the presidential primary election cycle, as a comment on the decline in discourse. Since then, it has evolved to explore the yawning chasm between the ideals of a nation & the brutality of its practice.
These flags have been used in protests & demonstrations; they come to life outside of the gallery walls.
NATALIE DAVEY
An unapologetic and undeniable multi-talented big hearted woman, Natalie Davey was our MC for the opening night of UPRISING. Coordinating the performers to ensure everyone had everything that they needed, Natalie took us on a journey, and brought us all together with her heart rending performance.
Natalie is a bold personality, she has worked in the hospitality & events industry most of career and now is an Innovation front woman for her company 'starting the conversation to make things better. The performing arts are her main passion, singing, dance and spoken words make her feel alive. Energy and the exchanging of positive energy is what brings this little firecracker to the team...?
As a childless woman her battles have been with those that have judged with ignorance and those difficult start up introductions of answering- do you have children? and dealing with the face of why not through most of her professional career.
AIDA WILDE & PAIGE MEGAN HAWLEY
