Driving to stall stasis (and other oxymorons)
Working with Joana feels like an oddly natural extension to my own practice.. it charges it with a longed for dynamic – the type of intimacy which is both a comfort and a challenge.
What is so apparent is the mutual nature of our drive to uncover the latent. This sharing of an enquiry into the consequences of over-conditioned selves allied with very different disciplinary approaches to unearthing intuitive ones find form in ways not be possible were we not cross-fertilising like this.
My work tends toward material analogies, orchestrating awkward assemblages and tangled accumulations; it has been static stuff; codes in matter… of matters – those relating to internal patterns and schemas, and to a restless state which oscillates between intent and incident, always in the midst of incompleteness and non-resolve.
What I do now, with Jo, feels as if the mining goes deeper, and that the system is prised open onto territories less familiar, agitating old constructs. I am working with a new material; one that is extraordinarily complex, mutable, beautiful, fluid and intelligent. I am constantly surprised at how affected I am every time we work together. Jo infuses all she does with soul – a facet that is fearless, instinctive and untamed; she draws on the wild self to perform the work, digging into uncomfortable places, pulling up tangles of muck and treasure.
In recent months our collaboration with sound artist Ross Oliver has expanded the boundaries of the work even further, generating hybrid pieces that are straddling disciplines of performance, assemblage, sonic and video installation.
Our latest work with Ross is Cuckoon, which will be shown as part of the How Soon Is Now exhibition at Stokes Warehouse. Performed on the attic floor of the space it will be viewable by live feed at the opening of the show on the 1st May.