image: Performance at Somerset House AGM, 2019. Photo credit Dan Wilton
To celebrate the closing weekend of Forest: Wake this Ground we are delighted to bring you Salvage Rhythms, an ongoing work which uses live performance, sound, film, text and collage to explore what we as humans can learn about new-world-building from observing the multispecies entanglements we are a part of.
Specifically, how the other critters, organisms and intelligences we share this planet with come together in hidden, surprising and dynamic ways to form networks and create ways of surviving in increasingly damaged landscapes (for example how trees of the same species send messages to one another via networks of mycorrhizal fungi, enabling them to warn of potential danger or share nutrients; or how the matsutake mushroom thrives in forests disturbed by human activity).
Arnolfini will be home to the longest iteration of the performance yet, with the installation running for a total of three hours. The audience is free to come and go, observing the shifts and developments that occur with varying levels of subtlety and paying attention to the gestures and interactions on a macro and micro level.
Performers: Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Karen Callaghan, Iro Costello, Leah Marojevic
Sam Williams is a London based visual artist and filmmaker working with moving-image, performance and collage. His research is currently focused on how we can look at multi species entanglements, ecological systems and folk mythologies to produce ideas for future ways of living.
Roly Porter is a composer and sound designer working in electronic music for installation, performance, film and game. His work is an attempt to combine sound design, the aggression of sound system music and the compositional structure and instrumentation of classical music.
Performers:
Karen Callaghan began her contemporary dance career in Ireland in the 1970’s. She went on to work in New York in the 1980’s performing with Jane Comfort, Ellen Cornfield and Wendy Perron amongst others. She trained as a Dance Movement Psychotherapist in London and worked in that capacity for over 20 years, predominantly in the human rights field. She returned to performing in 2011 and has worked with Rosana Antoli, Fevered Sleep, Janine Harrington, Rosemary Lee, Isabel Lewis, Tino Sehgal, Alice Tatge, Darcy Wallace and Sam Williams amongst others.
Leah Marojevic, currently based between London and Berlin, is a contemporary dance artist who performs, makes performance, and artistically and choreographically supports other artists in their practices. Leah’s own work and collaborations with various choreographers, visual artists and dance companies have been presented in museum and theatre contexts across Europe, the UK and Australia.
Bonnie Bird Choreography Award winner (2005) Temitope Ajose-Cutting has created and staged works for venues such as Royal Opera house and ROH2. She has been commissioned by The Place Prize Bloomberg, dance producer Eckhard Thiemann at Working Dance. Her works have been performed at Dance Xchange, RichMix, Dancebase in Edinburgh, Swindon Dance and the Soho Joyce (New York).
Iro Costello is a non-binary contemporary dancer, model and performance artist. Since graduating from London Contemporary Dance School in 2017, they have gone on to work with critically acclaimed artists such as Ben Wright, Lea Anderson and Didy Veldman. They also regularly work within the fashion industry, modelling for the likes of Vin + Omi, RickyLee Drayford, A Field of Ponies, etc. In 2020, Iro choreographed the opening show of London Men’s Fashion Week, held at The Savoy Hotel. Other choreographic work includes ‘Blue Blood’, was premiered as art of Fringe! Queer Arts Festival and ‘Mystic Energies’ which premiered at The Chateau in Camberwell and was performed at various venues throughout London.
The first performance of Salvage Rhythms was commissioned by Somerset House Studios and took place in London, 2019.
