Voicing Silence

2022 
Double holographic projections and soundtrack in Thai-inspired wooden structure.
Commissioned by the School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science at the University of Leeds and funded by the Arts and Humanity Research Council (AHRC), with extra support from Halton Borough Council.

I was part of a creative team led by artists Lou Chapelle working on the video element of the project, responding to work of other artists and community members involved, voices that are often unheard when we talk about climate crisis and extinction.

The artwork responds to these questions, engaging and drawing upon personal responses to extinction from diverse backgrounds and experiences (including asylum seekers and refugees temporarily housed at Daresbury Park Hotel, Runcorn and those supported by A Better Tomorrow and Trinity Safe Space, Wat Phra Singh UK Buddhist Temple trustees and dancers from Runcorn, Men Dancing from Liverpool, The Studio Writes and The Studio Sings groups in Widnes). People experiencing the piece are also invited to write their responses and attach them to the structure.

Other members of the creative team were:

Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies Dr Stefan Skrimshire 
Composer and choir leader Jennifer John
Dancer Kali Chandrasegaram 
Costume designer Rachael Prime
Poet Scott Farlow
Photography Robert Battersby
Project co-ordinator Louise Nulty
Production advise Dan Williamson

Across The Mersey Swim

The annual across the mersey swim took place yesterday. There’s only a 45 minute window to get over before the tide changes so it’s an amazing achievement for all those that completed it.

We filmed it last year from different perspectives start to finish. I might attempt it one day myself.

That’s Amoré

Last year, My friend and Re-Dock Co-Director, Sam Meech had been working with Tmesis Theatre Company developing visuals for a new show called ‘That’s Amore’. Funding to produce the show came in quite late and Sam was unable to continue work on it, so I jumped in to take over.

I’ve worked on Theatre visuals before, notably, ‘Tiny Volcanoes’ and ‘the Readers Wives Fan Club‘.

With visuals for theatre, it’s always tricky to get the balance right, where the projections add to the performance rather than becoming a clever but unnecessary distraction. With this piece, there was also 3 weeks of rehearsal and tech, which included changes and new ideas to the visual design and I wanted to do these in line with Sam’s original aesthetic, allowing the piece to have some sort of visual consistency.

10931449_10152662299168568_2216505331395469885_n

Last week, was the first outing for the new show with 5 performances at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool. It was a tough start, with lots of lighting and visual queue changes and getting the piece lit well without washing out the screens was always going to be a compromise. I had some projector issues (one of them crashed during a rehearsal), and a few times, both projectors were accidently knocked out of position during some re-focusing of the lights requiring some last minute realigning. All in all though, it came together and it feels like it’s in a good place for the small tour that’s taking place this month, mainly in the North West. Now that everything is fixed, I can actually stand back and look at the piece as a whole and I think there’s some really beautiful moments in it. The tour should be fun too.  I’ve linked below to some images from the show as well as some of the reviews.

That's Amoré

The Guardian

Liverpool Echo

Dunstable Wind Charming Day 2014


Last year, I went down to Dunstable, to film the ‘Wind Charming Day’ following up from my initial film the year before called We Are Now. The project was developed by Artist Laurence Payot and it was great to visit Dunstable again a year later and see how the project has developed.