Durational Performance and Installation.
Embodied approaches to image and movement creation within improvised duet and portrait forms.
Portraiture remains a unique and long-established genre for the exploration of our relational experiences of self and other, both in the collaborative act between artist and subject, and in the enduring generated image. Whilst discussion of these dialogical aspects within portraiture have been ongoing throughout its history, the relational medium of ‘dance duet’ incorporated in Curves of Time seeks to further unveil some of its deeper implicit elements.
Influenced by her background in dance and visual art, Kate Wilson has collaborated with two dance artists in integrated processes of improvised dance and portraiture in charcoal and oil paint. The resulting installation includes live performance, ten works on canvas and paper, and two video works that explore the emerging relationships between drawing, painting and performance. The live performance with dance artist Svenja Bühl is an invitation to witness the trans-disciplinary duet process as well as an opportunity for live engagement, as each journey by audience through the performance space becomes an additional dialogic aspect within the process.
With an ongoing interest in how new modes of practice and how extended understanding can emerge through a softening of boundaries between dance and visual art forms, Curves of Time investigates the inherent dynamic aspects of ourselves and our interactions, bringing us towards new definitions in visual art portraiture and dance.
Kate Wilson
Kate Wilson has a background in visual art and dance, and her practice based in northwest Ireland is transdisciplinary and collaborative. She is an honours graduate of the Slade School of Art and recipient of a MA from Independent Dance and Trinity Laban, London. Wilson’s work as a painter is represented in both civic and private collections in Ireland, UK & Germany. She is also a recipient of a number of awards and major commissions including RHA award of distinction, and commissioned portrait of the writer John McGahern. In 2016 Kate founded Undercurrent, a unique company of performers from diverse backgrounds with an innovative approach to collaboration and inclusion in the arts. The company subverts expectations with a distinctive ensemble of practitioners unfolding the potential of diverse experiences of mobility in the continued expansion of dance and performance languages. Performing a double bill with Irish Modern Dance Theatre in 2017, to the 2022 tour of Unearth, the ensembles work practice has evolved and continues to expand through new and established national and international connections and collaborations, with projects and research widely supported by Arts Council Ireland.
Svenja Bühl
Svenja works internationally within choreographic and community-based contexts, primarily within movement, film making, and performance. Bühl’s work is fuelled by an interdisciplinary outlook on practice and collaboration, whilst striving to empower underrepresented and minority groups in the arts. In her work, she explores dialogic processes between the human body and nonhuman matters, which feeds into her facilitative work within schools, care homes and youth groups throughout Ireland and the UK. Svenja has been working with Undercurrent since 2019 both with the Magnetise and Unearth projects and research project Curves of Time.
Ben McEwan
Ben graduated from Trinity Laban, the training cycle at P.A.R.T.S., and completed an MA in Creative Practice at Independent Dance/Trinity Laban. He works extensively as a performer and movement researcher, including major works with Vera Tussing, Charlotte Spencer Projects, Francesco Scavetta and Lisa May Thomas. Since 2021 he has been a guest dancer with Scottish Dance Theatre, performing works by Joan Clevillé, Rosemary Lee, Emanuel Gat, Collette Sadler, Meytal Blanaru and Botis Seva. He is part of the collective working under the name Salvage – a grassroots movement for training, mutual support and dance-making. Alongside performing, Ben teaches classes and workshops throughout Europe for professionals and dance companies. He has been a regular guest teacher at Trinity Laban, London Contemporary Dance School, a visiting teacher at several conservatoires and universities, including Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and has been a teacher on the Trinity Laban Centre for Advanced Training programme. He also practises the Japanese martial art Aikido at Tetsushinkan (London), and really loves to walk and run, especially if mountains are involved!
This event is supported by Leitrim Local Live Performance Programme with development and research supported by Echo Echo Festival of Movement Commission Award 2021.
